Pinterest: Love it or Hate it?

The jury is still out for me. I know all of the reasons people "love" Pinterest. It's great for organizing ideas, finding recipes, decorating your existing (or dream) home, crafting with/for your kids, etc.


But are any of you like me? Does Pinterest make you feel inadequate? Have you had any major Pinterest "flops" like I have? Two examples. My first Pinterest flop was a "great" cheesy penne chicken blah blah blah recipe. One hour, five pots and pans, and a soupy sloshy mess later...I was cursing Pinterest. Second example. Anyone else try the oh, so chic and adorable striped Easter eggs? I did. They looked like garbage. They were the most hideous Easter eggs I've seen. Now, maybe I can't blame Pinterest. Maybe the penne chicken recipe called for whole milk and I used 1%. Maybe the Easter egg craft called for electrical tape and I used painter's tape. Maybe those were my fault.


I still feel that Pinterest, although trying to be helpful, makes me feel like I don't do enough cute crafts with Landen. It makes me feel like I don't have enough clever organizational solutions in my home. It makes me feel like I haven't properly preserved Landen's precious artwork from daycare, or decorated my house in a really thoughtful and innovative way, or made the best, easiest, most delicious food out there. 


Does this only happen to over-achievers like me who want to do it all and do it all correctly, the first time? Maybe. Maybe, I need to let go of Pinterest a bit and only use it for idea pin boards - like Landen's 2nd birthday party. Maybe I shouldn't check out what others are pinning. Because when I do, my mind assumes that all of the pinners I'm following are actually DOING all of those cute, crafty, clever things that I'm just pinning and not actually doing much of. I know that this is not 100% true, but I can't get my over-achieving self to admit it.


A possible solution to this dilemma might be a "like/dislike" symbol (like Pandora) for people that have actually tried these things. 


I'll tell you what I would give a BIG thumbs up to: tonight's dinner. Here's what you need. Crock pot, frozen chicken tenders, block of cream cheese, can of Rotel or some salsa, black beans or pinto beans, can of corn (optional - I didn't). Turn on the crock pot for a few hours. The original blog said 6-8 hours. I cooked for maybe three on high last night and it was fine/cooked through. We heated it for dinner tonight and put into some whole wheat tortillas. Delicious. I will warn you, it looks absolutely disgusting (so good luck getting your picky kids to eat it), but it tastes fantastic. 


And THIS is why the jury is still out for me on my opinion of Pinterest. After a total flop - like ugly Easter eggs, Pinterest comes back with an amazing and super-easy dinner like tonight.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! We couldn't be happier with the way our weekend turned out. We were able to see family and friends from Friday night on through Sunday, and we filled ourselves to the brim with tasty food too! Landen slept great and was in good spirits all weekend and even made it through Easter mass. She really enjoyed finding Easter eggs around the living room this morning. We held a pre- and post-mass hunt since she liked it so much. I thought I'd share a few pictures from our day.

With Nana and cousin Michelle's dog Caesar this afternoon.

Having fun outside despite the windy day.

Easter pinata time! She needed a little guidance from daddy at first, but then she knew exactly what to do!

Love this one...

On her second turn, she thought she'd tap it from the bottom to see if that would work.

Landen wasn't the one to break it open, but she sure did collect a lot of candy. Here she's showing off her prize. :)

Top 10!

When I was looking for inspiration to get the blog started back up my clever sister-in-law, Katie, suggested "Top 10's". She does them on her blog and it's basically a list of ten things on her mind. I was trying to think of something to write about tonight, but there's too many things going on inside my head to focus on just one. So here it goes....

1. Something that's been on my mind A LOT lately....we bought a house! Details coming soon.
2. And something just as important....we sold our house! (fingers crossed) It happened so quickly I'm afraid to say it out loud too many times in case it was just a dream. 
3. Gotta say it....the weather is amazing. Outside of work, I love it. But it makes me nervous that my students are going to shut down wayyyy too early this year.
4. Landen is doing a great job of getting rid of her "uh-oh" (paci). She only wants it if she wakes in the middle of the night and in the car driving to and from school. The girl is a recovering paci addict. This is progress.
5. Now that she's letting go of the uh-oh, she's become an avid (stuffed) animal lover. Her first love was "Kiko" the dog. Now we have a zoo of animals lining her bed at night to keep her company. She's always got an animal under her arm. 
6. In case you haven't heard enough about Landen, she's growing up so fast and proves it every day by showing us her intelligence. She's now forming her own sentences (2-3 words) and not just repeating what we say. It's so fun to see her learning and displaying her unique personality right in front of our eyes.
7. So when is baby #2 coming along? Um, we just bought a house...give us a break! :)  Oh, and Landen is keeping us PLENTY busy.
8. I'm turning 30 in a couple of weeks. Living up my 20's by partying every night and pulling reckless stunts. If partying and reckless are code for staying up past 10pm once or twice a week, then my last statement is true.
9. I'm planning an awesome baby shower for my best friend, Rachel. I can't wait to celebrate the arrival of her little one even though she's refusing to find out the gender.  ;)
10. In fashion news, get yourself some bright colors for summer/spring. I recently purchased some orangey/red khaki cropped pants and a "highlighter yellow" cardigan and am in love with both. Something about all these bright colors makes me feel so cheerful. :)

That's it! My first top 10 in the books. Enjoy your weekend!

Another easy recipe

Since I got so much great feedback (and even got published!) the last time I shared an easy recipe, I've decided to share another. But don't laugh. It, like the first, contains crescent rolls, and has an obvious, no frills name: chicken squares. I promise these are the only two things I make that call for crescent rolls...and they're both delicious. These are Scott's favorite (he wanted me to mention that). And when they're finished, they don't really look like squares, but that's the name. Again, I got this from my mom. I believe it came from a magazine or something years ago. I remember the first time she made them when I was growing up. These are a once every two or three weeks recipe in our house because I can get Landen to eat chicken by making them. Just plain chicken is pretty dicey at times for her. 


Here are the ingredients:


2 rolls of Pillsbury crescent rolls (buy the Pillsbury ones - the cheap ones don't work, I promise)


1 block of cream cheese (I use 1/3 less fat)


3-4 TBS milk


1/2 tsp salt


1/4 tsp pepper


3 TBS butter melted


1 can of white meat chicken - chopped (I use 12-16 oz)


Preheat oven to 350.


First, melt the butter and soften the cream cheese for easy mixing. Add milk, salt, pepper and chicken and mix together. The mixture will be a little soupy. That's ok. 


Unroll crescent rolls and separate into eight squares (two rolls per square). Pinch the perforation together to form the square.

Next, spoon some of your mixture into the center (about 1/4-1/2 cup). Then pull the corners together and twist. Try to keep the mixture from coming out the sides because it's difficult to get back in and can get messy.

Finally, pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Bake until they're golden brown. 

Caution, they will be extremely hot inside, so if you're feeding to little ones (or big ones) cut them open to cool for a few minutes. Enjoy!

How to spice up a t-shirt

I promised a fashion post long ago, and it's finally here! I've decided to share with you how to make a basic t-shirt something presentable for a night out, for work, or for any casual-dress occasion. 


Back in the fall I purchased a couple of awesome v-neck burnout t's from Old Navy. I say awesome because they're soft, stretchy and long enough to be my perfect t-shirt. These shirts are a polyester, cotton and rayon blend, so they won't shrink...possibly my most favorite quality.


Once I realized just how great these t-shirts were, I tried to figure out how I could get away with wearing them to work without looking like a total slob. This was my solution: first, pair the t-shirt with a cute cardigan (long or short), next, add a fun belt... 

and sometimes even a scarf. 

I pretty much wear this combo at least once a week and usually once on the weekends. I hope you enjoy wearing that favorite t-shirt as much as I do!


P.S. Please excuse the crazy tilted photos. I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of myself from the neck down with one hand while making dinner and entertaining Landen. Multi-tasking at its best!

Happy Birthday to Hayes!

On Saturday we traveled to Centerville to visit our nephew, Hayes, for his first birthday party. We had fun spending time with family and watching Hayes waddle around the house. Landen was very excited to see her only cousin, who is always on her mind. We all enjoyed The Poky Little Puppy themed party from the "dog bone" pretzels to the stuffed puppy party favors. Here are some of my favorite images from the party...


Adoptable puppies! These were Landen's favorite. I think she wanted to adopt them all. To her disappointment, she only took home one. His name is "Cake".

Just some of the puppy themed snacks..."water bowl" (jello) and "dog bones" (soft pretzels)...

Birthday boy, Hayes! So smiley and sweet!

Wider shot of the "dog treats"...

Time for presents...Hayes liked the bows and tissue paper best. :)

And who doesn't like watching a one year old get their first real sugar high? Hayes loved every bit of his icing (and a little cake)...

Later in the evening, Landen and Hayes enjoyed their own little dance party in Hayes' bed. I think Hayes really enjoyed being bounced all over the place by Landen. Of course, when she wasn't trying to tackle him or bounce him out of the crib, Landen did try giving him a few hugs (that just resemble head-locks a bit).

Finally, I'll share one of the gifts we gave to Hayes for his birthday. I recently found this craft on Pinterest and decided it would be a good first sewing project with my brand new sewing machine. With minimal experience, I knew it would be a bit of a challenge, but my mom helped me work through some of the kinks.

The goal was to make the entire alphabet, but it's a work in progress. We'll call it "the gift that keeps on giving". Hayes got his name plus the letters "B" and "C" to get his alphabet started. The letters consist of two pieces of fabric with two pieces of felt in between (so the letters are stiff enough to hang on the refrigerator). They also include a magnet sewn inside (not as easy as it sounds). Older children could have letters with the magnet hot glued to the back, but the younger ones should have ones with magnets on the inside so not to cause a choking hazard. 

That's it for now. Fashion post coming soon. Promise.

Happy Valentines Day!

Landen and I are enjoying a two-hour delay morning together, so I thought I'd post pictures of the valentines we made over the weekend. She was a little leery of getting her hand painted (she likes clean hands), but she had a great time putting her print on the cards. :)  We hope your Valentine's Day is full of love.