Tomorrow is a new day

Today will be another one with two posts.  Yesterday was a blah day.  Sometimes those days happen, and last night when I went to edit and post the photos from the day I just was not feeling like doing it.  Thankfully I have a sweet husband that even when I am crabby and mopey loves me and attempts to make me feel better :)  Last night he planned an outing for us to go watch the sky change colors as the sunset and even bought me cute wine bottles to enjoy while we watched.  It ended up being a little chilly and the sky did not want to change, but it was still nice to just spend time with him after feeling like a failure most of the day.

Enjoy the pictures from my day 9 of 365 and I will be back tonight with pictures from day 10!

Psalms 37:23-24
"The Lord directs the steps of the godly.  He delights in every detail of their lives.  Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand."

All of my hairs are cut

Today was another low key day of Christmas vacation.  I am trying to soak up every ounce of relaxation before I go back to work next week and it has been glorious enjoying it with my husband.  We both got our hair cut and my head feels so much lighter!  Cameron always asks which hair I had cut and it is now a joke in our house to say we are going to get our hairs cut.  Sounds silly but it always makes us laugh :)

We enjoyed a trip to the flea market after and found new movies to watch tonight.  Our new television is getting a lot of use!

Enjoy day 3 of 365.

Thankful November

What a lovely weekend we had here in the Calef house!

photo shoot with my favorite family

date night

spur of the moment bonfire with friends

and trying out a new church

This weekend I was so thankful for the relationships that I have.  I have a loving husband, great friends, and the opportunity to meet new people and create new relationships.

Today I am thankful for the right to vote.  I know that a lot of people are telling you that today, and they do because it is important.  We live in a democracy where we have the right to elect individuals to public office.  How cool is that?!  People through around the phrase "it is my right" a lot, and not always are they correct, but voting is a right that we need to exercise.  Beyond the fact that it is a right, voting provides me with a high like no other and I always leave wishing the next election would be here tomorrow so I could do it again (minus all of the political campaigns... those can go away).

My goal for the month of November is to write something that I am thankful for everyday.  Some days they will make it on to the blog with a story or lesson that I am learning, other days they will be documented in my prayer journal.  I want to go through this month remembering that God has blessed me in countless ways.  My life is beautiful and there are days when I am trudging through the mundane pieces or the midweek blues and begin to lose sight of that fact.  I hope that through intentionally working towards a thankful attitude I will allow God to transform my heart and see my life the way that He sees it. 

Here is to a Thankful November!

Halloween Party 2012!

My heart is full and happy and I could write an entire post about it, but for today I am just going to leave you with some fun pictures from our Halloween party.  It was a lovely night of friends, costumes, food, and a toasty fire :) 

Happy Sunday!

Recipe Friday: Red Beans and Rice

It's Friday!!!  I just love the relaxing/ exciting feeling I get on Friday.  I can relax knowing that I have a weekend at home and I get excited about the fun weekend activities we have planned.  This weekend we are working on an outdoor fire pit to replace the one that was stolen from our house this week :/  Hopefully a brick one will prevent them from being able to take it from our yard.

To start the weekend I thought I would share my cheater red beans and rice recipe.  When I met Cameron I quickly learned that his favorite meal EVER is red beans and rice, and my mother in law told me that I would have to learn how to cook it :)  When I first attempted it right after getting married I put in all of the effort of soaking dried beans overnight and spending a couple of hours letting all of the ingredients cook together in a big pot on the stove.  I quickly learned that all of the time put into the meal would not work in our lifestyle and that I needed to fix the recipe to fit into the time I have to devote to dinner.  Here is my quick and easy red beans and rice that still makes my husband happy :)

Ingredients:

*1 can of red beans drained and rinsed

*3 cups of rice (I usually use Uncle Ben's)

*One package of sausage (I've used turkey and kielbasa, but it really depends on what you like)

*6 1/2 cups of chicken broth (or water with chicken bullion cubes if you're in a pinch)

*Creole seasoning

Optional:

*Garlic

*Olive oil

I first heat up olive oil in garlic in my pot, and then add in the rice and stir to make sure the rice is coated in the olive oil.  I toast my rice for 3 to 4 minutes to make sure the garlic flavor is infused.

Once the rice is toasted I add in the chicken broth.  The night I made this I didn't have chicken broth on hand (fixed that grocery shopping this week!) so I just used water and 4 chicken bullion cubes.  Not as good on the sodium front, but it works flavor wise in a pinch :)  You could also use vegetable or beef broth, I just prefer chicken.  The point is to give a flavor for your rice to soak up as it cooks.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes.

While the liquid and rice boils I begin prepping the beans and sausage.  Cut the sausage in quarter inch slices and then cook in a pan until they are nice and brown on both sides. 

At this point you may have a cutie puppy intently watching for a falling piece of sausage ;)

 While the pot is boiling also drain and rinse the beans.

With about five minutes left in the cooking time I usually add in the beans and the sausage.  The five minutes helps to warm and soften the beans, and it gives time for all of the flavors to combine.

The final step is to add in the creole seasoning.  There is no right or wrong amount it just depends on how much kick you like to your food.  We like a lot of kick!  Start out with a light sprinkle and add in a little at a time.

Your final result is easy, delicious, and perfect for cool, fall days!

Living Room Update... Finally

We have lived in our house for almost 5 months!  I honestly cannot believe it has been that long, and when I look back at pictures of how our house first looked I am blown away.  We have done so much work to make this house our home and I am so proud of it.  I thought about doing an entire house update in one post, but then decided that I would break it up by rooms in order to show more pictures and details and make the fun last longer!

If you want to look back at all of the pictures from when we first moved in here is my initial post.

Our living room when we moved in was dark, dirty, and in need of TLC.  The walls were a dark hunter green, the trim was painted over with dark, muddy brown, the ceiling fan was brass, and the wood floors had seen better days.

 

We spent two weekends with my amazing in-laws working to paint the house and work on the floors.  They even came back while we were gone on vacation and polyurethaned the floors in the living room and bedrooms!  It was a long process but the end result in the living room is the perfect living space for us :)

We chose the color "Blue Lagoon" by Behr for the walls and LOVE the color as well as the paint.  It took us ONE, yes let me repeat one, coat to cover over the dark hunter green!

The floors look so much better after a good scrub and a coat of polyurethane.  If I was redoing floors in my permanent home I would have sanded, re-stained, and covered the floors with a couple of coats of poly, but this worked great to make the floors look clean, be more durable, and we were able to do all of the floors in the house with one can.

This shelf had a makeover and now acts as my "mantle".  I love it for showcasing sweet mementos during the year, and I am really excited to dress it up for holidays!

The hutch looks so good up against the blue walls!  I love how well all of the bold colors pair with one another in the space.

This is a lamp that we DIY'd out of a fun lampshade I had to have from Target and a pendant light from Home depot :)  It helps to define the "dining" part of the space.

It is hard to see, but behind the door we have a coat rack for purses, school bags, and jackets. You have to get a little crafty when you don't have a coat closet!

We also tackled the ceiling fan during our living room makeover.  It used to be brass, but one day we took it apart (part to paint and mostly to clean) and spray painted all of the metal parts with oil rubbed bronze.  It looks so much classier!

There is the tour of living room!  It has been a long time coming so thank you for being patient :)  There are still blank walls that I would like to have photos on, and I am still on the hunt for the perfect curtains , but it definitely looks and feels much more like home!

Weekend in Pictures

Happy Monday!  We had a great weekend of good times with friends and catching up on sleep :)

Campfire and wine (well beer for the boys) with the our lovely friends the Schuman's!

This couple is a huge blessing in our lives.  And they are pretty cute to top it off ;)

Harvest Festival at SDC!  It was a rainy, wonderful day followed by movie watching and chili eating at the Schuman's! 

Cutie new shoes!

Puppy loves make homework better ;) 

How was your weekend?

We get by with a little help from our friends

This past weekend we had the opportunity to hang out with lots of friends and I felt overwhelmingly blessed.  Cameron and I went through a phase right after we got married where we prayed diligently for other married friends that loved God, would encourage us and that could put up with us ;)  We were two people with separate friend groups coming together, and we wanted friends that we could hang out with together.

Our friends have definitely been an evolution this past year.  We started spending more time with couples that we both already knew and we have met new ones while branching out at church.  This weekend was a wonderful blending of both of those groups.  We were able to celebrate my GA position with some of our old friends and we out to lunch after church with some wonderful people that we have met just this year through getting more involved and putting ourselves out there.

This weekend I had the "ah ha" moment.  He has provided us with friends to laugh with, share life, look up to, and be real in front of.  And he is planting seeds for more relationships to develop.
This year has been crazy, but through it all God has provided.  Even in the area of friends he has blessed us with couples that want to share in life's joys with us.  There were times when it looked dark, but on the other side of this year I just look back and see the many blessings.

I will end this post with a few more anniversary photos. Thanks to all of you reading for being my friend and a source of encouragement and joy in this crazy life.  I love all of you :)

I am living such a blessed life.  Sigh :)