Monday Music Moment, Vol. 5

Can you believe it's already Monday again? I mean...seriously, this weekend felt like it floated by in half a day. Anybody else feel that way today?

Anyway.

So, just to let everyone know what's going on in my neck of the woods, out here in Lillington we lost a beloved member of our community this passed weekend. She fought a tough battle, but ultimately couldn't overcome melanoma. Many people are heartbroken over losing her, but my heart breaks even more for her two children--one is in third grade, the other only in kindergarten. We have a tough job ahead of us to help lift them up and love them through this hardship.

So I guess you could say my mind's been a little preoccupied today. And while I was looking for a good Monday Music Moment, I had this sudden flash of an incredible song from the movie Troy. It's by the always wonderful Josh Groban, and it's a song called "Remember." I can't get over how fitting this song is for many people right now, mainly because I couldn't remember a thing about the lyrics, only the melody! But God works in mysterious ways, and if this song can bring a little bit of healing to any hearts that are hurting from the loss of loved ones...that's all I could hope for right now.

Enjoy the song. The music video is kind of cheesy...it's clips of the movie with Josh Groban's singing head popping around the screen. Cheesiness aside, I hope you'll enjoy it. As per usual, I will post lyrics beneath the video for those who like to read them, too.

Remember, I will still be here

As long as you hold me, in your memory

Remember, when your dreams have ended

Time can be transcended

Just remember me

I am the one star that keeps burning, so brightly,

It is the last light, to fade into the rising sun

I'm with you

Whenever you tell, my story

For I am all I've done

Remember, I will still be here

As long as you hold me, in your memory

Remember me

I am the one voice in the cold wind, that whispers

And if you listen, you'll hear me call across the sky

As long as I still can reach out, and touch you

Then I will never die

Remember, I'll never leave you

If you will only

Remember me

Remember me...

Remember, I will still be here

As long as you hold me

In your memory

Remember, when your dreams have ended

Time can be transcended

I live forever

Remember me

Remember me

Remember... me...

See you guys on the flip side.

♥ Marlee

Friday Funnies, Vol. 4

Awkward family photos.

You know the ones.

Maybe dad's not looking at the camera. Maybe sister's got her finger up her nose.

You thought yours were bad, but today, for our Friday Funnies, I bring you:

Extreme. Awkward. Family. Photos.

These are care of AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, which dedicates itself to "Spreading the Awkwardness." Enjoy, and just be glad that none of these are pictures of you.

One commenter on this photo said, "The only thing that would make this creepier would be if the floating head was looking down on the little girl." Creepier, indeed.

Poor Margaret, who submitted this photo, explains it: "This photo was taken in 1950 while our family was on a summer vacation at the Jersey Shore. I am the lovely creature on the left with a horrendous case of poison sumac and look like a creature from outer space. My two brothers seem only intent on shooting the photographer, and my mother, grandmother and grandfather seem unfazed by this weird person in the photo with them. How did I ever allow anyone to take my photo looking like this? I was just 6 years old and probably didn't think twice about it at the time."

This one is titled, "Objects of Affection." Um, okay.

Oh, my. That sweater is just ridiculous. For serious.

I think she might need a diaper change?

And it was posted with a caption reading,

"And most odd is that this a Christmas photo."

Really? That's the most odd thing about this picture?

And a final awkward family photo:

With a caption that reads, "Mom thought leopard print would be too tacky."

Just kind of makes you love your family a little bit more, right? Hope it made you smile, anyway. Feel free to share any awkward family photo moments of your own in the comments below, and I'll see you kids again on Monday! Have a great weekend!

♥ Marlee

Special Edition!!

I interrupt my normal blogging schedule to introduce you to a wonderful new addition to my extended family. My good friend, Emily, just gave birth today to this lovely little boy, Andrew.

He is beautiful, and God be praised, healthy! I'm so excited for this new chapter in my wonderful friend's life! Congratulations to Emily and Josh!

Every child begins the world again... ~Henry David Thoreau

♥ (Aunt) Marlee

PS - You can follow Emily's new adventures, or go take a look at her journey through her pregnancy by clicking the link called "Knitted Together" that is to the right in my list of links. Enjoy!

Thoughts on Thursday, Vol. 4

Hello and Happy Almost Friday again!

For this week's Thoughts on Thursday, I knew that I wanted at least one of my categories to be babies, as my good friend Emily is currently in the process (literally) of having her first beautiful little baby! I'll be an auntie! :-)

So, first, some thoughts about babies:

"Babies are such a nice way to start people." ~Don Herrold

"Every baby needs a lap." ~Henry Robin

(Shannon: but then again...a lap is an illusion, right?)

"A baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race." ~Barbara Christine Seifert

"If you were to open up a baby's head--and I am not for a moment suggestion that you should--you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland." ~Dave Barry

"A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." ~Carl Sandburg

(Favorite so far, I think...)

Now, how about some thoughts on the future:

"The past can't see you, but the future is listening." ~Terri Guillemets

"And in today already walks tomorrow." ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive." ~John Sladek

"The course of life is unpredictable...no one can write his autobiography in advance." ~Abraham Joshua Heschel

And lastly, some thoughts that will be a little on the miscellaneous side:

"All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity." ~Robert Louis Stevenson, "Crabbed Age and Youth," Virginibus Puerisque, 1881

"Most men are more capable of great actions than of good ones." ~Montesquieu, Varietes

"I find my joy of living in the fierce and ruthless battles of life, and my pleasure comes from learning something." ~Auguste Strindberg, Miss Julie, 1888

"If your teeth are clenched and your fists are clenched, your lifespan is probably clenched." ~Terri Guillemets

I think that'll do for today. Have a great evening, and as always, let me know if there are any topics that you'd like to see some quotes about for next week. See you tomorrow for our next installment of Friday Funnies!

♥ Marlee

Writer's Corner Wednesday, Vol. 4

Hey there!

Thanks for coming back to join us on this Writer's Corner Wednesday. I promised to write something for you all this week, and I have kept my promise, though I continue to implore you to treat my writing kindly, as I'm a bit rusty still.

I was trying to figure out a good place to start, and realized that teaching is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and not in an I'm-a-teacher-and-it's-my-job kind of way. I thought I'd write a little bit about my feelings about teaching.

I often use a sort of stream of consciousness approach when I'm writing poetry, and this is one of those instances. I hope you enjoy it!

teaching

is like trying to sift through mounds of dirt and rocks

trying to find the nugget of gold within

it's like finding the biggest piece of coal

and polishing it until you have a diamond worthy of a prince

teaching is living for that moment

when a student says, "i get it!"

and feeling a little sad that those moments are so brief

it's seeking to make each day exciting, inventive

and meaningful

hopefully fun, and hopefully interesting

but most of all: meaningful

teaching is frustration

it's hard.

it's a lot of heartbreak.

(a lot.)

but the joy...

the joy of reaching a student

of seeing success that YOU made happen

of watching a student become a leader

that makes it all worth it

So there you go! Hope you found it interesting, and maybe it even inspired you to reflect on your passion, whether it's your job or anything else. Take some time to reflect and write, and you'll be amazed what might come out!

That'll do it for this Writer's Corner Wednesday. Today's been a long day and I'm looking forward to turning in a little early.

For tomorrow's Thoughts on Thursday, let me know if there are any topics that you'd like to read some quotes about, and I'll be sure to pull something together! :-)

Have a great night, and I'll see you kids tomorrow!

♥ Marlee

Tasty Tuesday, Vol. 4

Hi there, friends!

For today's Tasty Tuesday, I decided to do a little research to bring some information your way. I was thinking about a good topic, and then it hit me! A lot of people don't really know what to keep on hand in their pantries to be ready to throw together a meal at a moment's notice. So I did a little digging, and read a few articles. So today, I bring to you:

The Top 10 Things No Pantry Should Be Without:

(Just as a side note, these aren't listed in any particular order, and this list is by no means the end-all, be-all. It's just some handy tips! Consider what you like to eat and cook when stocking your own pantry.)

1. Pasta

What's faster than boiling some pasta? Super easy, and if you buy the right kind, it isn't awful for you, either. If you aren't keen on wheat pasta, try something like Ronzoni's Smart Taste, which has extra calcium and other goodies in it without the texture that so many people don't like of whole wheat pasta.

2. Spaghetti Sauce/Tomato Sauce

Along with pasta, throwing together spaghetti is a quick and filling meal. I prefer Hunt's canned spaghetti sauces because they're usually cheaper and they taste just as good. Their Four Cheese is my absolute favorite. Plain old tomato sauce is also great if you have a good spice rack with Italian spices on hand. Tomato sauce is also a really versatile ingredient and can be used in chilis and other soups and dishes.

3. Rice

Rice is another great staple to have around, and is an easy foundation for a great meal. I prefer brown rices or other grains with more texture to just plain old white rice, but choose whatever type you enjoy the most!

4. Chicken Broth

So many uses. It just makes sense to always have either canned stock or bouillon cubes on hand if you prefer that. I usually have both.

5. Oil

The choice is yours as to which kind is your favorite--canola oil and olive oils are two good ones. Great for use in all kinds of cooking, especially if you're trying to cut back on other fats, like butter.

6. Beans (Canned or Dry)

Though dry beans take a bit more effort to prepare, they're better for you and lower in sodium than canned beans. Both are great to throw into soups and chilis or just to use as a side dish. My favorites are pintos and black beans.

7. Canned Tuna

Now, tuna isn't everybody's favorite, so if it isn't yours, obviously it isn't something you need to stock up on. But it's such an easy thing to use in so many ways, whether just to make tuna salad or to throw into a pasta dish or a casserole. And it's usually not too expensive, either!

8. Flour

Hopefully this one is a no-brainer. If you aren't someone who bakes often, it's still great to have on hand as a thickener for sauces or even just to bread meats with.

9. Sugar

Another great one to have on hand if you're a baker, but also good for using in all kinds of recipes. If you opt for a sweetener other than sugar, be sure to ensure that it matches sugar when being used for baking or cooking. If not, be prepared to adjust your recipe.

10. Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is most often thought of as a sandwich staple, but as a few of the articles I read also mentioned, it can be used to add flavor to sauces, as well. It's quick and easy protein so long as proper serving sizes are followed!

So there you have it. Again, not an all-inclusive list. One honorable mention that I thought of as I was putting this list together was to have at least a can or two of some kind of cream of _____ soup. They're great for cooking with and for using to add depth to homemade soups.

Remember that you have to buy according to your taste (and your budget). Hopefully this was a little helpful. Share any other items that you always have to have on hand in the comments below!

See you tomorrow for Writer's Corner Wednesday! Stay warm!

♥ Marlee

Monday Music Moment, Vol. 4

Hello, and (dare I say it) Happy Monday!

I was looking through a lot of stuff about good music over the weekend, trying to find something exciting to bring you for your Monday Music Moment this week, and I found myself looking up a group that I've heard a number of my friends buzzing about for a long time: Mumford & Sons. They're a British group, and since I'm not super familiar with them, I'll use the first paragraph from the Bio section of their website to introduce you to them:

Since they formed in December 2007, the members of Mumford & Sons have shared a common purpose: to make music that matters, without taking themselves too seriously. Four young men from West London in their early twenties, they have fire in their bellies, romance in their hearts, and rapture in their masterful, melancholy voices. They are staunch friends - Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane - who bring their music to us with the passion and pride of an old-fashioned, much-cherished, family business. They create a gutsy, old-time sound that marries the magic of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the might of Kings Of Leon, and their incredible energy draws us in quickly to their circle of songs, to the warmth of their stories, and to their magical community of misty-eyed men.

So, I hope you'll enjoy them, and I encourage you to go and check out their stuff on YouTube. They have a really different sort of sound, and I now understand why so many people I know just love their music!

Enjoy your Monday Music Moment--the song is called "The Cave," and it's off of their new album called "Sigh No More". I'll go ahead and post the lyrics under the video for your perusal! :-)

It's empty in the valley of your heart

The sun, it rises slowly as you walk

Away from all the fears

And all the faults you've left behind

The harvest left no food for you to eat

You cannibal, you meat-eater, you see

But I have seen the same

I know the shame in your defeat

But I will hold on hope

And I won't let you choke

On the noose around your neck

And I'll find strength in pain

And I will change my ways

I'll know my name as it's called again

'Cause I have other things to fill my time

You take what is yours and I'll take mine

Now let me at the truth

Which will refresh my broken mind

So tie me to a post and block my ears

I can see widows and orphans through my tears

I know my call despite my faults

And despite my growing fears

But I will hold on hope

And I won't let you choke

On the noose around your neck

And I'll find strength in pain

And I will change my ways

I'll know my name as it's called again

So come out of your cave walking on your hands

And see the world hanging upside down

You can understand dependence

When you know the maker's land

So make your siren's call

And sing all you want

I will not hear what you have to say

'Cause I need freedom now

And I need to know how

To live my life as it's meant to be

And I will hold on hope

I won't let you choke

On the noose around your neck

And I'll find strength in pain

And I will change my ways

I'll know my name as it's called again

Let me know what you think in the comments below! I'll see you tomorrow for installment numero cuatro of Tasty Tuesday!

♥ Marlee

Friday Funnies, Vol. 3

For today's Friday Funnies, I've been in kind of an ironic mood. So I decided to focus today's funnies around irony!

All of the images I'm going to share with you today are presented because they pose some kind of irony, whether it's clearly stated on the picture or not. See if you're able to determine each picture's ironic elements, and feel free to share any funny/ironic moments you've had this week in the comments below.

Here we go!

Something tells me this plan wasn't very well thought-out.

(Really, telemarketers? Really?)

Bird: 1, Sign: 0

(Makes you want to rush out and buy a can today, right?)

(What's in a name, anyway?)

(Yeah, I totally trust them to my car's alignment...)

Hmmm...

So there you have it, folks. I hope you were able to enjoy and find some irony in each of those pictures. Remember to let me know if there's something you'd be interested in seeing on any of the days each week--especially topics for Thoughts on Thursday. :-)

Happy Friday to all, and have a great weekend!

♥ Marlee

Thoughts on Thursday, Vol. 3

Hey there! Happy almost Friday! :-)

For this week's Thoughts on Thursday, I've been feeling like I could use a few humorous quotes. I know I put up a funny story yesterday, and tomorrow we'll have our regular Friday Funnies, but I've just been in the mood for more humorous topics lately. It's always good to laugh, right?

I went to my favorite spot for gathering quotes--The Quote Garden, and the quote they had chosen for the "Daily Harvest" today was too great to pass up sharing. Take a look!

"I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her." ~Ellen DeGeneres

Ha! I thought that was too funny, but then again, I'm a big fan of Ellen, anyway.

So, here are few funny gems I found while perusing the site for some laughs. Enjoy!

"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking." ~Attributed to Arthur McBride Bloch

"A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion, but doesn't." ~Author Unknown

"I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three." ~Elayne Boosler

"You can't have everything...where would you put it?" ~Steven Wright

"If you cannot answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names." ~Elbert Hubbard

This one is a two parter. Enjoy!

"Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen." ~Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

"Lord, Lord, Lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer." ~Douglas Adams Mostly Harmless

"When people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other." ~Alan Alda

"Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails. What puts man in a higher state of evolution is that he has got his laugh on the right end." ~Max Eastman

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground...and miss." ~Douglas Adams

And I'll wrap up today's Thoughts on Thursday with this lovely quote:

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." ~Mark Twain

Hopefully this helped to bring a smile to your face today! I'll see you back here tomorrow for our Friday Funnies, and as always--feel free to post requests in the comments for future quote topics or anything else you'd like to see in the coming weeks!

Goodnight, sleep tight!

♥ Marlee

Writer's Corner Wednesday, Vol. 3

Hello again, friends!

Today, as we come to our third Writer's Corner Wednesday, I'm afraid I may have to ask for your forgiveness. I have goodies to share with you, however, between a parent thing we did last night at school, and staying after to help with something else today, I'm a little bit pooped.

Think if I promise something great that's penned by me next week, we can call it even?

I'll make sure I set aside some time to put some writing together this weekend. :-)

Anyway, let's move on to enjoying some great words from someone else for today.

I've hit you up with poetry for the past couple of weeks, and today I thought I'd find a good, brief, comic essay to share with you to add a different dynamic to this Writer's Corner Wednesday.

And so, without further ado...enjoy, and I'll see you tomorrow for Thoughts on Thursday! Share your responses to the essay below in the comments section!

♥ Marlee

Business Letters

by Robert Benchley

A textbook on English composition, giving examples of good and bad letter-writing, is always a mine of possibilities for one given to ruminating and with nothing in particular to do. In Business Man's English the specimen letters are unusually interesting. It seems almost as if the authors, Wallace Edgar Bartholomew and Floyd Hurlbut, had selected their examples with a view to their fiction possibilities. It also seems to the reader as if he were opening someone else's mail.

For instance, the following is given as a type of "very short letter, well placed":

Mr. Richard T. Green,

Employment Department,

Travellers' Insurance Co.,

Chicago, Ill.

Dear Mr. Green:

The young man about whom you inquire has much native ability and while in our employ proved himself a master of office routine.

I regret to say, however, that he left us under circumstances that would not justify our recommending him to you.

Cordially yours,

C. S. THOMPSON

Now I want to know what those "circumstances" were. And in lieu of the facts, I am afraid that I shall have to imagine some circumstances for myself. Personally, I don't believe that the "young man" was to blame. Bad companions, maybe, or I shouldn't be at all surprised if he was shielding someone else, perhaps a young lady stenographer with whom he was in love. The more I think of it the more I am sure that this was the secret of the whole thing. You see, he was a good worker and had, Mr. Thompson admits, proved himself a master of office routine. Although Mr. Thompson doesn't say so, I have no doubt but that he would have been promoted very shortly.

And then he fell in love with a little brown-eyed stenographer. You know how it is yourself. She had an invalid mother at home and was probably trying to save enough money to send her father to college. And whatever she did, it couldn't have been so very bad, for she was such a nice girl.

Well, at any rate, it looks to me as if the young man, while he was arranging the pads of paper for the regular Monday morning conference, overheard the office-manager telling about this affair (I have good reason to believe that it was a matter of carelessness in the payroll) and saying that he considered the little brown-eyed girl dishonest.

At this the young man drew himself up to his full height and, looking the office-manager squarely in the eye, said:

"No, Mr. Hostetter; it was I who did it, and I will take the consequences. And I want it understood that no finger of suspicion shall be pointed at Agnes Fairchild, than whom no truer, sweeter girl ever lived!"

"I am sorry to hear this, Ralph," said Mr. Hostetter. "You know what this means."

"I do, sir," said Ralph, and turned to look out over the chimney-pots of the city, biting his under lip very tight.

And on Saturday Ralph left.

Since then he has applied at countless places for work, but always they have written to his old employer, Mr. Thompson, for a reference, and have received a letter similar to the one given here as an example. Naturally, they have not felt like taking him on. You cannot blame them. And, in a way, you cannot blame Mr. Thompson. You see, Mr. Hostetter didn't tell Mr. Thompson all the circumstances of the affair. He just said that Ralph had confessed to responsibility for the payroll mix-up. If Mr. Thompson had been there at the time I am sure that he would have divined that Ralph was shielding Miss Fairchild, for Mr. Thompson liked Ralph. You can see that from his letter.

But as it stands now things are pretty black for the boy, and it certainly seems as if in this great city there ought to be some one who will give him a job without writing to Mr. Thompson about him. This department will be open as a clearing-house for offers of work for a young man of great native ability and master of office routine who is just at present, unfortunately, unable to give any references, but who will, I am quite sure, justify any trust that may be placed in him in the future.

"Business Letters" originally appeared in the collection Love Conquers All by Robert Benchley (Henry Holt and Company, 1922).

Tasty Tuesday, Vol. 3

Hello and Happy Tuesday once again!

Today, I'm bringing you a recipe that is a favorite of mine to bust out during the holidays. It's a recipe that I got from an old co-worker, who got it from a cookie swap party! Cookie swaps are when you get a bunch of people together and each person makes a big batch of cookies. They each bring copies of the recipe, and the idea is that you get to hang out and eat sweets, and then leave with recipes and a little bit of everything that everybody brought!

I've made these for a couple of years for a cookie swap that my dear friend Sarah throws each year around Christmas. :-)

Introducing...the Oreo Truffle!

Oreo truffles are sinfully delicious, and ridiculously easy to make. They are a little tedious, but they're very good, and totally worth it because they always taste fancier than they are!

Here's what you need:

No, seriously.

Here's the process.

1. Take a package of your favorite Oreos (I've made them with regular and mint ones before), and set aside 5 or 6 cookies.

2. Dump the rest of the package into a food processor and pulse them into a fine crumb. I really believe that a food processor is the best for this part. It makes them very smooth.

3. Put the crumbs into a bowl, and process the 5 or 6 cookies set aside earlier. Put them into a small container and keep them to the side.

4. Take 8 oz. of softened cream cheese and fold it into the big batch of Oreos. You can try to mix this with a spoon, but truthfully, they come out better if you just roll up your sleeves and knead it all together. Do this until the mixture is fully blended, but don't let it get too soft.

**If you mix the cream cheese and cookie crumbs in a food processor, I can tell you from experience that the mixture will be much too soft.**

5. Once you've blended the mixture well, start rolling! Pinch small amounts of the mix and roll them into roughly 1-inch balls. I usually set mine onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

6. Once you've filled a cookie sheet, pop them into the fridge for a few minutes to firm up. This is a great time to prep your toppings.

7. Melt a package of milk or white chocolate candy coating according to package instructions.

8. Take the rolled truffles out of the fridge. Drop them into the candy coating. This part can be tricky, and you'll have to find the method that works for you. I usually use a couple of forks. Drop the coated truffles back onto the wax paper. Once you've dipped all of them, pop them back into the fridge again for a few minutes.

9. Here's where the extra cookie crumbs you set aside earlier come into play. Once the candy coating has set on the truffles, bring them back out. Dip only the tops of the truffles into the candy coating, and then dip the tops into the crumbs. It'll make a really nice looking top to your truffle!

10. Have fun decorating! You can use sprinkles, or colored chocolate, or nuts, or coconut, or crushed peppermints, or...you get the idea. Let your creativity and your taste buds guide you!

Here are some cool decorating jobs that others have done--they show that Oreo truffles can really be made to work for any time of the year and any function!

I thought the footballs were too cute! What a fun Super Bowl party idea!!

One batch will easily yield 2-3 dozen truffles! Enjoy, and if you make them--let me know how they come out!

Until tomorrow,

♥ Marlee

Monday Music Moment, Vol. 3

So, this week's Monday Music Moment is brought to you by...a Lifetime Movie?

Yep.

I watched the Lifetime Movie: The Craigslist Killer. Doesn't sound like the best place to find a great song, but at the end of the movie, this song started playing, and I just sat and listened. I was incredibly captivated by the song and voice, so I did a search and figured out that the song was "Where the River Bends" by Matthew Barber. I wanted to post it, but truthfully, there wasn't a video that was very good, and I didn't want just another video of lyrics going across the screen or just a screen shot. So I started listening to a TON of Matthew Barber's stuff.

This kid is good! He's very singer/songwriter-esque, and I love his lyrics. I finally found one I wanted to share with you, but I encourage you to check out his other stuff on YouTube if you think you might like him--there's a lot on there. I'm going to post the video and then I'll have the lyrics at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy and Happy Monday (and MLK, Jr. Day) to you all!

Lend me an ear, I'll tell you a story

'Bout a man who didn't know how to be

Joined a travellin' circus from PEI to BC

I was playing dead every morning

I was taking dives every night

Someone came and swept me off my feet in midflight

Now without a love I really got nothing

Without a love I'd hang up my shoes

It'd be a world of suffering

If this one I was ever to lose

So I'm hanging on with all of my power

I'm hanging on as tight as a noose

Around the midnight hour

She said, "Remember that I'm easily bruised."

I've heard everything that I wanted

Had so much I threw it away

She could see that what I needed was never there anyway

Now everything around me is shifting

I'm running like a child through a maze

But I'm never lost completely 'cause an angel keeps me safe

Lord, without a love I'm dead in the water

Without a love my aim is untrue

My blood gets hotter and hotter

At the thought of leaving this angel blue

I'm hanging on with all of my power

It's looking like our bodies might fuse

And when our cries got louder

She said, "Remember that I'm easily bruised."

When I can't let go

And if I love too hard I'll hurt my baby so

Now everything makes sense at the moment

And the moment's independent of time

But who decides where truth resides

Your guess is as good as mine

So how 'bout a sip of the good stuff

How 'bout 'nother round on me

If this moment last forever

Then the truth we might just see

But without a love I don't have an inkling

I'd be howling every night at the moon

And if the stars stop twinkling

The end will sure be coming soon

So I'm hanging on with all of my power

In the garden where we're all free to choose

Any fruit or flower

She said, "Remember that I'm easily bruised."

"Remember that I'm easily bruised."

"Remember that I'm easily bruised."

Friday Funnies!

Happy Friday, one and all!

Here we are, at another Friday, and that means it's time for...Friday Funnies!

This week, I was thinking about how many hysterical signs there are, and how entire websites are dedicated to them, so I thought I'd bring a few your way and share them on here. Feel free to share some of your favorite funny signs in the comments below!

Let's begin:

(For some reason, ^that^ one makes me think of my dad...)

(Not gonna lie, ^that^ was one of my favorites so far...)

(Until I saw ^THAT^ one.)

And we'll wrap up this edition of Friday Funnies with this beauty:

Hopefully this helped you smile a little wider today! Have a great weekend and I'll see you folks soon!

♥ Marlee

Thoughts on Thursday, Vol. 2

Hello again, friends!

Welcome to our second installment of Thoughts on Thursday. Now, I haven't really gotten much response from you guys as to specific topics you'd like to see quotes on, so I'm just going to pick a few subjects and share some thoughts. I hope you're enjoying reading the daily themes--I really appreciate your feedback, so always feel free to let me know what you love and what you think could be better using the comments section.

Let's get this show on the road, eh?

I'm struck with the desire to share some quotes on friendship, so enjoy these!

"Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty." ~Sicilian Proverb

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." ~Albert Schweitzer

"If a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it." ~Edgar Watson Howe

(This one made me laugh, but it's an interesting approach!)

"If I had to sum up Friendship in one word, it would be Comfort." ~Terri Guillemets

(How beautifully poetic! And true!)

Now for some thoughts on effort:

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." ~Thomas Jefferson(!)

"Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm." ~Sidney J. Phillips

(Food for thought...)

"If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.'" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Appropriate, with MLK, Jr Day on Monday!)

"Door don't slam open." ~John M. Shanahan, The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time (In Two Lines of Less)

And, our last topic for today is one close to my heart: teaching.

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of who didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job." ~Donald D. Quinn

(Amen!)

"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary." ~Thomas Carruthers

"Teachers who inspire know that teaching is like cultivating a garden, and those who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers." ~Author Unknown

(One of my favorites!)

And, to end on a humorous note...this one was said by an anonymous teacher:

"If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I'll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home."

Ha!

Well, folks, I won't drone on. I hope you've enjoyed today's Thoughts on Thursday, and as always, I welcome your suggestions for topics you'd like quotes about for next week.

Stay warm and drive safe, and I'll see you tomorrow for your Friday Funnies!

♥ Marlee

PS - I've added a section for "Reactions" to my posts. If you'd rather not type a comment and you just want to give a quick response, feel free to check off any of the boxes you feel are appropriate. It'll help me gauge what you enjoy! :-) Thanks!

Writer's Corner Wednesday, Vol. 2

Happy Wednesday to you all!

I hope everyone in my neck of the woods has been staying warm--it's certainly been treacherous outside! Harnett County had their third day in a row off today, and I'm not going to lie...cabin fever started to settle in yesterday. But tomorrow we'll surely be back, though I'm not sure if we'll have a delay or not. Things seem pretty much melted outside now, so I won't be surprised if we go back on our regular schedule tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm here to bring you this week's Writer's Corner Wednesday, and today, I'm focusing on the wonderful Haiku. Haiku poetry is surprisingly easy to write, and it's formula is incredibly simple:

5 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

Haiku poetry comes from Japan, and it's neat because it usually focuses on a specific description of a small moment. Haiku poems are often about the seasons or about nature. I'll first give you some examples by actual poets, then I'll show you a few that I wrote in (literally) just a few minutes.

First, the experts:

(Side note--many of these are translated from Japanese, so note that they may not be 5/7/5 in English)

The crow has flown away:

swaying in the evening sun,

a leafless tree.

-Natsume Soseki

The wind that blows -

ask them, which leaf on the tree

will be next to go.

-Takahama Kyoshi

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

-Basho

Hopefully you notice the nature themes found in these examples. Haiku poetry almost holds a magnifying glass to a moment in time. It's like its intent is to heighten all of your senses in one instant so you don't miss a detail. That's kind of what I love about Haiku poetry...because it's almost not natural to slow down like that anymore in our daily lives.

Writing Haiku poetry is super simple. Just pick something specific to describe, and break it down in syllables, or beats. Five for the first line; seven for the second; five for the third. It's absolutely acceptable for one line to continue onto the next, meaning each line doesn't have to be its own complete thought. The idea is that the end product should read kind of like one complete thought.

Alright, time to try my hand at at few. Here's one:

comfortable and warm,

tucked inside my lovely bed

must i go to school today?

It's my intent to really focus on my desire to stay in bed, so hopefully you felt that longing to crawl back into yours by the end of that brief thought. Here's another, inspired by a look out my window!

crisp, cold, clean, clear, crunch

ice covers my car outside

staying home sounds great!

Remember when I mentioned cabin fever? Forgive my singularity of thought there. One more:

warm, steamy, delicious

homemade soup warms up my soul

like a bowl of love

A bowl of love? Yuck. Sorry about that one. That's probably a good place to call it quits.

Hopefully you feel inspired to try your hand at your very own Haiku. It's kind of addictive. If you come up with one you want to share, feel free to do so in the comments below.

I'll see you all back here tomorrow with some thoughts for your Thursday. Please leave any requests for topics in the comments, as well!

Stay warm!

♥ Marlee

Tasty Tuesday, Vol. 2

Hello again, friends!

Yesterday evening, as I was watching the snow fall and staying as bundled as possible inside of my apartment, I was hit with the desire to make some soup! So for today's Tasty Tuesday, I bring you a sort-of "recipe" that I made up as I was going along, but it wound up absolutely delicious!

So, to start, I had a ham bone that my parents gave me, along with a huge bag of leftover ham. I started by putting the ham bone into my soup pot and covering it with water. I let it boil for a good while, tasting and adding salt a few times until I felt like I got all of the flavor I could out of the ham bone. While that was boiling, I chopped up about half of the ham meat that I had...my best guess would be that it was at least a couple of cups worth.

I took the ham bone out and skimmed for any pieces of fat that had come off of it, making sure that I tasted and salted the stock. After that, I added a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom with roasted garlic, and another can of their regular cream of mushroom. I also added the chopped up ham meat at this point. I stirred it a bit and covered it to let it boil and mix. After I let it boil for a bit, I stirred it again and tasted the stock I had so far: delicious! The mushroom and ham married together so well, I was really pleased.

I decided to add a cup of Harris Teeter's American Basmati Brown and Red Rice Blend with Pearled Barley and Rye Berries. It's a really great blend of flavorful rices that have a bit more texture to them than just plain old brown or white rice. This stuff takes a while to cook, so I gave it a good stir, then covered it and put the timer on for 45 minutes.

At around the 15 minute mark, I decided I wanted to add some veggies, so I tossed in a bag of frozen chopped broccoli and frozen sliced carrots. I didn't want to add too much more to the soup, and at this point I honestly didn't need to season anything at all.

So there you have it. It's delicious, and I don't really have a name for it other than ham and mushroom soup with vegetables and rice, which is a bit of a mouthful. Here's the breakdown of ingredients one more time:

• ham bone, boiled to create stock
• salt, to taste
• 1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic
• 1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom
• 2-2 1/2 cups of chopped cooked ham
• 1 cup of H.T. Traders American Basmati Brown and Red Rice Blend
• 1 bag of chopped frozen broccoli
• 1 bag of frozen sliced carrots

It was super easy--the biggest thing was having patience for the stock to get flavorful before I took out the ham bone, and then waiting for the rice to cook. But now I have a big pot of soup to eat off of while the weather is cold and gross. What's your favorite cold-weather food? Share in the comments below!

Stay warm, and I'll see you tomorrow!

♥ Marlee

Monday Music Moment, Vol. 2

Hello and happy Monday to all!

Today is a snow day for my county, and if the weather keeps doing what it's doing outside right now, we could be in for another snow day tomorrow. It's just now starting to stick outside, but the snow has been seriously coming down for the past couple of hours.

So, could be an interesting couple of days for us out here...hopefully the "ice storm" part won't hit us too hard. Worse case scenario, I have a charcoal grill and two bags of charcoal in my pantry. :-)

So, for your Monday Music Moment this week, I've been putting a lot of thought into a great song that has meaning to me and might become one of your favorites, too. Ginny, who I mentioned on Saturday's quick post, introduced me to this group, Straight No Chaser, a couple years back. They are an incredible a Capella group, and I have thoroughly enjoyed everything I've heard from them. I own a couple of their CDs, and this particular song is just amazing. It's a cover of an awesome song by Coldplay called "Fix You," and the levels they create with their voices in this song are AMAZING.

I wanted to post a video of the group actually singing the song, but truthfully, I couldn't find a video that had that and had good sound, so pardon the less than exciting video. But my hope is that you'll enjoy it, whether a Capella music is your cup of tea or not. Listen all the way through, because the layers only get more complex and beautiful as the song goes on to the end.

I'll be back tomorrow with a recipe, which just might be for whatever kind of soup I decide to make tonight. Let me know your thoughts on the song, and by all means, check out their other stuff. They are incredibly talented.

Stay warm!

Just popping in for a quick hello!

Hope everyone's weekend is going well. I was able to head to the grocery store with a friend today to capitalize on a major sale on a couple of items. Wound up spending just under $15, but I saved almost $30 from the sale. That's always satisfying. I wish I was better at couponing, but I haven't yet really taken the time to give it a try. My friend Ginny, however, has it down like I've never seen. She spent around $120 today, but she SAVED almost $100 between coupons and sale prices. Amazing. She makes me want to start clipping coupons.

Anyway, I decided to bust out the George Foreman grill tonight and cook up some chicken, but I used one of my favorite Hawaiian-style marinades on it, first. I also made this really yummy brown/red rice blend, and some veggies. It was a good, balanced meal, and I'll have plenty to eat off of for the next day or two. That's one of the cool things about living by myself.

The weather forecast for Monday-Tuesday is looking a little crazy for us here in NC. We went from concerns for a great amount of snow, to bigger concerns about ice and possible power outages. Whatever comes, I have a feeling that we'll probably be looking at at least a delay on Tuesday, and I'm hoping that it won't amount to more than just 1 missed day of school at most. Snow days are nice, but you always have to make them up--and I'd rather not lose my only workday this month, thanks!

So this has been a totally rambling and random post, but I felt like just writing for a little bit. I hope you've enjoyed reading this week, and I want to emphasize again that I encourage and welcome any suggestions and feedback. Are there any days that you feel like need a makeover? Would you like to see quotes on a certain topic, or poems from a specific poet? I want to write for myself, of course, but I love writing things that people really want to read.

Have a great Saturday night, and a wonderful Sunday!

♥ Marlee

"Language...has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone." ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

Friday Funnies!

So, hopefully everyone has had a good week. Mine has been pretty good, considering we just came back from a holiday break. I was pretty impressed by the behavior of my students, and I think we got a lot of stuff done despite the desire to go right back to two weeks ago and have break all over again.

Anyway, you're here for some funnies, so I have some to share with you from various sources. Most of these made me laugh out loud; some may not be as funny to you as they were to me, and that's okay--it's just my hope that you'll find something that at least makes you smile. I decided to focus on pictures for today. Enjoy!

From I Can Has Cheezburger?:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

From So Much Pun!:

see more So Much Pun

From Very Demotivational:

see more Very Demotivational

I wasn't going to put anything other than pictures, but then I found these, and I figured I'd use a few of them to close things out. In the words of the always funny Dan Bain: The world is hurting. Laugh more.

*Two antennas meet on a roof, fall in love and get married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

*A dyslexic man walk into a bra.

*A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road.

And we wrap up this first edition of Friday Funnies with this gem:

*Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly; but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.

(Insert rim shot here.)

Have a fabulous Friday night and a great weekend! I have tons of schoolwork to do this week, so I'll post when I come up for air, but do let me know your thoughts on the new blog format.

After five days, have any of the themes fallen flat? Do you have any suggestions for next week? Are you tired of me yet? :-)

See you soon!

♥ Marlee

PS - By all means, please feel free to share any funnies of your own in the comments below!

Thoughts on Thursday

Well, hello again!

I hope everyone had a good day. Mine was pretty good, all things considered. Today is all about quotes, another favorite past time of mine. In fact, I want to take one moment to really praise one of my favorite websites EVER--especially if you want a quote for a specific purpose. It's found in my list of links to the right: The Quote Garden. This website is conveniently organized by topic, and they are also updated occasionally, so even your favorite page may change if you haven't looked at it in a little while. I can waste so much time just reading there.

But anyway, enough of my pimping of TQG. I wish to share some quotes with you, and so share I shall! I'll just explain the topic, and any thoughts I have in regards to the quotes.

On weather/snow:

"When snow falls, nature listens." ~Antoinette van Kleeff

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" ~J.B. Priestley

"The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches." ~e.e. cummings

(I laughed out loud at reading that one.)

"When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels." ~Author Unknown

"There's one good thing about snow: it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor's." ~Clyde Moore

"Winter came down to our home one night

Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,

And we, we were children once again." ~Billl Morgan, Jr.

(That's almost poetry, but man is it pretty!)

I'm a fan of snow, so long as it doesn't totally trap me from the world for more than a couple of days. And we are, due to get a system that could bring quite a bit of snow next week. Could be interesting...

These are some quotes that make you go "Hmmmm...":

"We are never prepared for what we expect." ~James A. Michener, Caravans

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time." ~T.S. Eliot, 1943

"The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions." ~Susan Sontag

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it." ~Yogi Berra

Let's see, now for some quotes on politics (always a safe topic, eh? Play nice!):

"Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all to long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong." ~Richard Armour

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." ~Plato

"Politics, n: [Poly "many" + tics "blood-sucking parasites"]" ~Larry Hardiman

And last for today, let's read some thoughts on perspective:

"If you do not raise your eyes, you will think that you are the highest point." ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'." ~Henry Moore

"A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works." ~Bill Vaughan

"There's no such thing as bragging. You're either lying or telling the truth." ~Al Oliver

"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity." ~Albert Einstein

Well, there you have it for today. Hopefully a quote or two resonated with you and made you smile, laugh, or even better--think! Feel free to share a great quote that you love in the comments section and check back tomorrow for something humorous to making your Friday Fun!

Happy almost weekend!

♥ Marlee

Writer's Corner Wednesday!

Hello and happy Wednesday to all!

For this first Writer's Corner Wednesday, I have to be honest...I haven't had much time to try to write a whole lot myself. So here's the plan: I'm going to share some beautiful words by others, and if it works out, I'll dabble in a few almost-beautiful words myself at the end. Worst case scenario is that you'll have to wait to read some of MY writing next week. :-)

Either way, beautiful words shall be shared. Enjoy!

First up, a wonderful poem by William Wordsworth.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle in the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such jocund company:

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

That wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Could the imagery of this poem be any more beautiful? I just sat back and the whole thing played out in my mind after reading it. It's incredible what words can create in our mind's eye, don't you think? I've always had a soft spot for poetry, though. :-)

I have a strong inclination to include this poem, by William Carlos Williams. He has written many poems, some of them much more involved than others, but the following poem was one that caught my eye when I was assigned a research paper in 11th grade about who he was and who influenced him. As a junior in high school, I didn't really see the value in this poem, but reading about other's praise for it slowly made me see the beauty in it.

I give you, "The Red Wheelbarrow".

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

No really. That's it.

The thing about WCW is that he's all about simplicity and straight forward imagery. You read that poem and you can see the rain on the red wheel barrow; you can see the white chickens. It's kind of amazing, if you let it be.

Okay, one more. This one is from Carl Sandburg, another notable American poet. It's a beautiful and brief depiction of the year in seasons. Enjoy.

"The Year"

I

A storm of white petals,

Buds throwing open baby fists

Into hands of broad flowers.

II

Read roses running upward,

Clambering to the clutches of life

Soaked in crimson.

III

Rabbles of tattered leaves

Holding golden flimsy hopes

Against the tramplings

Into the pits and gullies.

IV

Hoarfrost and silence:

Only the muffling

Of winds dark and lonesome--

Great lullabies to the long sleepers.

Pretty cool, huh? I'm all about imagery in poetry, or in any kind of writing, really.

So the question is now, do I have something to share with you? Perhaps I do. Don't judge me too harshly, it's been ages since I've sincerely tried to write something worth reading. Let's give it a go, though, eh?

The Break of Day (working title)

There's something kind of beautiful

About the break of day.

(Now I'm not at all a morning person,

So this is odd for me to say.)

The break of day brings with it

The hope of a fresh new start

The chance to start things over again

To mend a broken heart

The chance to say "I'm sorry"

And to make things once wrong, right

The chance to change your thinking

And to move from dark to light

Though often, when a new day breaks

I'd rather stay in bed

The chance to go do what I love

Demands I raise my head

Don't waste your time with worries

Or live beneath regret

Tomorrow brings another day--

It could be the best one yet!

Okay, so I know it ended in a way that made the whole thing sound a little like a Hallmark card, but there you have it. I'll work on chipping the rust away from my writing, and hopefully in a few week's time I'll feel more confident about it.

So, I think that's a good place to wrap up today's Writer's Corner Wednesday! I hope you enjoyed the selections I brought you, and I hope you'll be back tomorrow for Thoughts on Thursday, a day of sharing some great quotes. Feel free to share your own favorite quotes in the comments section tomorrow, but for today, let me know what you thought of the pieces I shared today--what was your favorite? Why? What's one of your own favorite poems?

Hope today was a great day--and don't forget that tomorrow can be even better! :-)

♥ Marlee

Tasty Tuesday!

Hi there!

For this, my very first Tasty Tuesday, I believe I'll do a bit of a live blog.

You see, I'm embarking on an adventure tonight. A personal first, with no one to tell me that I'm doing things all wrong...and this will chronicle my sure-to-be-at-least-mostly-a success. (Did you like that?)

What am I doing, you ask?

Why, I'm roasting a turkey breast!

What? Anticlimactic?

You have to understand, I've come to a place of confidence cooking many things.

Pot roast? No problem.

Chicken--particularly drum sticks and breasts? I could do it in my sleep.

Pork chops? Easy peezy.

Fish? I won't even break a sweat.

But big stuff...like whole chickens or turkeys, or yes, even this almost 5-pound turkey breast...they intimidate me a bit.

Mostly because if I do it wrong, then I've officially ruined FIVE POUNDS OF FOOD.

But today, this changes. Today, I take on the turkey.

Oven was preheated to 325 at the recommendation of the little thingy that Butterball puts with their turkey breasts. I don't have an actual "roasting pan with rack," but my 2-in deep brownie-style pan will do.

So far the only ingredients I've used have been butter spray and garlic pepper. I don't want to do a ton to this thing, and I'm trying to follow the recipe well. It'll take between 2 and 2.5 hours to cook, so I guess as I check on it periodically, I'll update this post and let you know how things are coming along. It'll probably only be every half hour or so, so don't go crazy with the refresh button or anything, as I know all of my avid fans will want to do. (Or at least that's how I picture it, ha!)

So I'll see you again at the first half-hour mark, which will actually be about half-way through cooking since I'm at about a half-hour in right now. So far, no fire--so good. :-)

Also, since I believe it is important to set positive goals for oneself, here is a picture of how I envision my finished turkey breast to look:

I probably won't serve it with grapes and apples on the plate, but you get the general idea. (Seriously...who puts fruit next to a roasted turkey breast? Random.)

See you a little before 6!

UPDATE! (@ 6:00)

We now have only about an hour left to go, and my apartment officially smells amazing. I just checked on the bird and sprayed it down once more with butter spray, but I don't really want to add broth or anything to the pan, though I'll probably use whatever drippings I get to make some kind of gravy.

So, all signs point to success so far! Check back in with me a little before 6:30 as we enter the home stretch!

UPDATE #2! (@ 6:30)

We're actually probably less than 30 minutes away from checking this bird! I don't have a thermometer, though I probably should invest in one, so I'll have to check it out by cutting into it, but we'll see! Still smelling amazing in here, and the bird is looking good!

I'll give you another update around 7, hopefully by then the bird will be finished and resting! :-)

UPDATE #3 (@ 6:55)

I put the bird back in for just a few minutes to ensure that it's totally done. The instructions/recipe said 2 to 2.5 hours and we just passed the 2 hour mark, so I'm erring on the side of caution and hoping I don't dry it out! :-) My last update will be after the bird is out and rested and sliced to give you a verdict on whether or not this adventure was a success. See you sometime around 7:30!

FINAL UPDATE! (@ 7:30)

Oh. My. Gosh.

This is delicious! I was worried that I had dried it out, but it's perfect! And I don't even have to add salt--the garlic pepper had some in it and made everything taste wonderful.

I think we can check this one off as a success. And garlic pepper was the perfect route--added tons of flavor without having use a bunch of salt. And I only used butter spray, so no major fat added from butter!

I foresee turkey sandwiches and lots of other turkey dishes in the next few days!

I hope this didn't bore you horribly; hopefully I'll have something more exciting to tell you about next week. I can't promise that this will be a live blog every week, but with this being such a long-range project and taking multiple hours to cook, I felt it warranted this format.

So you tell me--was our first Tasty Tuesday a success? What did you think of this "semi-live blog" format?

See you tomorrow!

♥ Marlee

Monday Music MADNESS!

Okay, so it's not really MADNESS, but it sounded catchier to me.

Today, I bring you a wonderful song: The Book of Love, sung by Peter Gabriel.

I first fell in love with this song when watching the wonderful movie, "Shall We Dance?" If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. I mean, Richard Gere? (Swoon.)

This song is such a sweet one, and I love the fact that it's fairly simple. There isn't a ton of instrumentation, or really any fanfare needed. It's quiet and beautiful.

Here's hoping you found some beauty in your day today!

Stream of consciousness; changes on the way!

Hello, and Happy New Year!

I've been horribly MIA for quite some time on here, and that's more to do with laziness than busyness.

So, I think what I'm going to do for the new year is to kind of revamp the structure of my blog. I'll still write on a hopefully more regular basis, but I think I might assign a type of post to each day of the week. Is that lame? We'll find out by trying, right?

So, totally writing in a stream of consciousness kind of mode right now, but here's what I'm thinking about:

Monday - I'm thinking about picking a song to share with you on Mondays...get it? Music on Monday? Clever, right?

Tuesday - Perhaps on this day, I might try to post a recipe or something that I'm trying out in the kitchen? What should we call this one? Tasty Tuesday?

Wednesday - I'm thinking this day might be dedicated to writing/sharing some poetry, which I've fallen out of working with, but haven't lost my love for writing. :-) Wednesday's Writer's Corner?

(I'm not going to lie, I'm beginning to feel that perhaps this decision is lamer than I thought...I'm still wanting to give it a test run, at least! Bear with me, I guess.)

Thursday - I think this day will be a day of sharing quotes! We could call it "Thoughtful Thursday" or "Thursday Thoughts" or...I don't know. Something like that. Remember, I'm planning this out in real time, here.

Friday - Hm...if I'm sticking with alliteration, the first thing that came to mind was "funny." So maybe this day will be dedicated to sharing something humorous? Could be story, a picture, or something else...I dunno! We'll see. :-) Funny Friday, for now, I suppose.

For Saturday and Sunday, I'm thinking I'll just stick to the basics and post as I'm able. I figure shooting for at least five days a week (Monday-Friday) is ambitious enough.

So, we'll give this a go, then! Hopefully it will be an exciting addition to the blog site, and perhaps the structure will keep me focused and producing blogs on a regular basis!

Again, Happy New Year to all, and I'll see you tomorrow on Musical Monday! (Music on Monday? Monday Music? I'll figure something out, maybe...)

♥ Marlee

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin