Monday, February 3, 2014

In Real Life Lately

So, I know I wrote every day for a month, and it was good. It was a good discipline to write only short posts. It was harder than I thought to add those extra 8-10 posts for the month. I was surprised at how much having a couple extra posts per week increased my writing load.

But, I feel like I have left you all out of my life loop while writing for 31 Days: New Year, Renewed You. I mean seriously, for all you know, I dyed my hair purple and have been writing from a recently joined commune.

Or not.

Life has been great. Very busy. I have been juggling normal January life stuff, plus I have had a exciting new element that has taken up a lot of my focus...

-We finished our 19th week of school. Which means we are past the halfway mark. Everything should be a smooth, downhill coast from here. (snort!)

-Freckles is turning 10 this week. 10! My second born! That is officially crazy!



-Meres is talking up a storm. Her current favorite movie is Sound of Music. She belts out Do-Re-Mi, and calls herself alternately Marta or Gretel. She climbs our staircase singing "Good-bye" right on (extremely high) pitch.


-LC is growing into a little lady. And she is a book worm. Always reading. It makes my heart happy when I see her curled up with a good book, blankets on and lips moving.


-BMV is my right hand man. He is thrilled that he will be 12 this summer. I am not nearly as thrilled. He earned the money for a Nintendo DS last summer and fall, and has been having a blast playing on it.

-We are currently in Charleston this week, soaking up rest and history. This time of year is always a great time to get out of Dodge. Mr. Hippie can't do much work because of the weather. So we vacation. I am looking forward to visiting iconic Charleston sites, as well as walking through the city. I love walking in downtowns.

-I am up to my ears in tax work. Thankfully I actually had done part of it last summer. So, I am finishing the accounts for the year and getting expenses and all that stuff lined up for our tax guy. Who is the bomb, btw. The only good reason to pay taxes.

-I am also up to my ears in new business launching stuff. Have you heard that I am starting a online menu planning service? For around $5 a month, I will send you a menu, recipes, and a grocery list tailored for 1-2 or 4-6 people. I am very excited about it! Me, a regular business woman, holding business hours on Thursdays and every other spare minute. You can follow my progress on FB or twitter. Lord willing, She Plans Dinner will be open for business in March. There is more to this business launching stuff than I ever would have guessed like...

-Learning mad photography skillz...The first thing I learned was that my point and shoot camera really is not sufficient for food photography. The second thing I learned was about aperture. The third thing I learned is that out of 500 photos, you might end up with 50 that are useable, and 5 that are great. These are all photos that I took that didn't make it to the website level. But still WAY better than point and shoot.

chicken mole (I will be sharing that fantabulous recipe on Friday)

omelet...I love how I got the kiwis to blur nicely, and the filling to focus sharply.

spice cake

chili

latin chicken-and yes, this casserole dish makes an appearance in most of the photos.

bread. the staff of my life...

not exactly what I was aiming for. I wanted the hand a little clearer and the rolls blurred out.
But, still, a fun pic of Meres stealing a roll.
-I bought my very own and very first non point and shoot camera. It is a started model Nikon but pretty amazing for this newbie. I can't wait to learn it and learn more about the ins and outs of photography.

-Oh, and did I mention that I also got to practice my mad plumbing skillz? Our kitchen faucet broke and with lots of prayer, I fixed it. It was an easy fix. So, I will maybe consider a vocation in plumbing if Mr. Hippie ever kicks the bucket. Or I could be a general handy woman....

So, what have you been up to the past month? Hibernating? On vacation? Just plugging along?

*So I actually wrote this before today, and actually we are not in Charleston. Both our vehicles broke down on Friday, and we couldn't rent a car because we don't have credit cards. We are very bummed not to be enjoying the 70 degree weather of Charleston, but we are thankful that God is sovereign and He is working out His plan for our lives even in the small details.