Another day

Well, I’m not going to lie. When I realized we were already to Thursday, I was both elated and freaked out because I’d forgotten to make notes about things to share this week. However, I quickly used my last few remaining brain cells to recall some things I wanted to share with you and here they are in numerical format.

1. mind blowing easy kale salad

There’s a restaurant here in San Antonio that makes a really good kale salad. It’s good enough that I will actually go there and order it just because I like it and not because I’m trying to be healthy. And I’ve wanted to make a version of it at home because, you know, kale is a super food. I mean, it’s not as popular as it was a year ago thanks to the advent of the cauliflower pizza crust that people want to tell you is the same as a regular pizza crust, but it’s still on the healthy eating desirable list.

All that to say, this kale salad is delicious. The dressing really makes it because it’s the perfect amount of lemon flavor and then the dried cranberries (I used those instead of raisins because I am raisin adverse) add just a little bit of sweetness. I’ve also learned that the trick to making kale better is to make sure you take the leaf part off the stem part. The stems are chewy weeds of Satan.

2. Jesus, Mary and Joe Jonas article by Jonathan Parks-Ramage

I read this article about Reality church in Los Angeles earlier this week and it has really stuck with me. At a time when it seems like the church is doing a lot of things wrong, this made me appreciate the people who are really walking out what it means to love Jesus and share that with your community.

3. Sacred Pace by Terry Looper

I met Terry Looper briefly a few weeks ago when we were both waiting to do a T.V. interview. He was so kind and we talked about writing books. He told me his first book was coming out in a few weeks and the general synopsis was how God changed the way he lived his life and led him to start a business at age 40 where there were no sales goals and no one worked more than forty hours a week. Oh, and he also gives half of what he makes back to the church and other ministries. I googled him when I got home and found out the company he started based on those principles is now a multi-billion dollar business. So it looks like that worked out for him.

Anyway, I had his publisher send me a copy of the book and it’s really made me think about how I make decisions. This would be a great book for wherever you are in life and I like that it’s super practical, straight forward and honest.

Here’s the Amazon description:

“At just thirty-six years old, Terry Looper was a successful Christian businessman who thought he had it all—until managing all he had led to a devastating burnout. Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams but miserable beyond belief, Terry experienced a radical transformation when he discovered how to align himself with God’s will in the years following his crash and burn.

Sacred Pace is a four-step process that helps Christians in all walks of life learn how to

-slow down their decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
-sift through their surface desires and sinful patterns in order to receive clear, peace-filled answers from the Lord,
-gain the confident assurance that God’s answers are His way of fulfilling the true desires he has placed in their hearts, and
-grow closer to the One who loves them most and knows them best.”

4. southport patio egg chair

This chair is at Target and I fall in love with it every time I find myself in their outdoor furniture department. It’s $399.99 in case you are in the market for a patio egg chair.

5. Jen Reed at The Sister Studio

Maybe it’s because I need the mental break while I’m trying to finish my next book, but I am following more fashion bloggers than ever on Instagram. I can’t even remember how I found Jen Reed’s instagram, but she is my current favorite because her style is simple, affordable and practical. Plus, she’s just funny and doesn’t take herself seriously which are qualities I enjoy in a person. Her Sister Studio instagram is a great one to follow if you’re in need of some fashion inspiration.

Happy Thursday!

I almost forgot that it was Thursday because I picked Caroline up at school early on Tuesday because she wasn’t feeling good and she was home all day yesterday and this essentially caused me to lose track of what day it was and where we are in the week. But then I ran to HEB on Wednesday to pick up some medicine for her and realized it was the day before Valentine’s Day because the store was filled to the brim with all manner of Valentine’s Day gift offerings, including a bouquet made of beef jerky and Corona. I almost bought it for myself.

I did buy these two small vials of something called Immunity Boost Turmeric Shots that are supposed to help you either not get sick or get over your illness faster. Caroline has already missed one soccer game and will most likely miss a track meet and really wants to get better in time for her next soccer game on Friday. I brought them home and she took a little swig and immediately started coughing and gagging and declared, “This is the most awful thing I’ve ever tasted.” I thought she was being overly dramatic and said, “Oh for goodness sake, how bad can it be?” right before I took a sip for myself.

You know how bad it can be?

Bad enough to make you wish you didn’t have a tongue.

Like, seriously. There are no words or a description that’s adequate for the vileness of it. From now on, we’ll stick to regular, old-fashioned orange juice.

Anyway, here are some things I thought I’d share this week.

1. caitlin peters design

I found Caitlin Peters design when my friend Carly at C. Style posted some her darling notecards on Instagram. They are so bright and colorful and just make great gifts.

She also has these personalized otomi notepads

2. hum glow sweet glow vitamins

I can’t remember where I heard about these, but I decided to give them a try. They are supplements that help your skin and contain vitamin C, hyaluronic acid and vitamin e. All the things that you hear you need for good skin and they protect from free radicals which are the worst radicals of all.

True story: I’ve been taking them for a month and I do think my skin feels better. Also, they taste like a dreamsicle so it’s not a challenge to take them every day.

3. german nivea cream

Jamie Golden mentioned this on her Instastories for her January favorites. Apparently, the ingredients in the German made Nivea are very similar to the ingredients in La Mer. I don’t know if you know this but La Mer costs about $500 and your first born child. This German made Nivea was $10.87 and I get to keep Caroline, so that seems like a better bet.

The trick is it has to be the German Nivea and not the one at your local Walgreens that’s made in Mexico. The link above is for the legitimate German version that’s made in Hamburg, Germany. I’ve been using it for a week and my face and neck feel so much better. I love my rosehip oil but my skin just needs a little more moisture during the winter.

4. comments by celebs

I may be the last person on Earth to know about this Instagram account, but it’s one of my new favorites.

5. Christian breakup lines

In honor of today being Valentine’s Day, I thought I could post something really sweet and romantic. But then I found this John Crist video of Christian breakup lines and decided it was a lot more fun.

Have a great Thursday.

I’ll just be here administering cough and cold medicine and Vitamin C and trying to not get sick.

What? Two weeks in a row? I think I smell a regular feature.

And, as it turns out, it’s pretty easy to come up with some things to share when you make notes in your phone all week about things you want to remember to tell people.

So here are some of those things:

1. julian’s pretzel baguette

Gulley told me about this pretzel baguette a year ago and I was like “Okay, sure” and then I never could find it at HEB and then I forgot all about it until she had it at her house on Christmas night and I ate an entire baguette by myself. It’s so good and comes pre-buttered and essentially I could live on it.

I looked it up online and it looks like it’s available at various grocery stores nationwide. It’s in the frozen bread section at HEB so I’m assuming that’s where it is at your grocery store of choice.

2. bobbi brown crushed liquid lipstick

My entire skincare/makeup regimen has become one long “What would Jamie Golden do?” She has the best tips and tries everything. I highly recommend following her instastories here.

She recommended this Bobbi Brown crushed liquid lipstick in her January favorites and I knew immediately that I would love it by her description that it was like a lip stain and lip balm and not sticky. So I ran to Sephora and bought the “in a jam” but I almost bought “smoothie move”. I also liked “give a fig”. It lasts forever and feels so moisturizing but not sticky at all. In other words, it’s a match.

via GIPHY

3. O Heavy Lightness: A Guide for Lent and Holy Week by Erin Moon

My friend and another favorite on Instagram, Erin Moon, has written the loveliest guide with daily devotionals for Lent. I started reading it yesterday and can already tell I’m going to love it. Erin is funny and smart and was raised Southern Baptist and is now Anglican so what I’m saying is she can cover some theological ground.

4. isle of paradise self-tanning drops

I bought these on the recommendation of some fashion blogger I follow and was a little skeptical but decided it was worth a shot. And here’s the verdict? I love them.

They are tanning drops that you can mix with your favorite face or body moisturizer and it becomes a self-tanner but without the smell and the agonizing choice of deciding if you want to use good moisturizer or have some color on your pale winter skin. I bought the medium and I just mix about 3 drops with my rosehip oil for my face and then about the same with my Hummingbird lavender lotion for my body. It’s genius. They are $28. You can also find them at Sephora but they are currently sold out online so I linked to Beauty Bay instead.

5. John Mayer cover of It’s My House on Watch What Happens Live

My friend Holly Mathis shared this with me a few weeks ago and it has become one of my favorite John Mayer songs that isn’t actually a John Mayer song. It just makes me happy.

That’s it for this Thursday.

Hope you have a good one.

I haven’t done one of these posts in forever, but I had a few things I wanted to share that I thought you may or may not be interested in.

1. A new dinner recipe

I don’t know why this has been such a challenge for me lately, but I think it’s a combination of being tired of all my usual meals and trying to get back in the swing of real life after the holidays. On Sunday night, P asked me what we were having for dinner and I stared in my pantry for about ten minutes trying to think of what magic I could make using only rice and ground beef before I finally announced that we would be using Favor to get something delivered. So I started searching around for various recipes and made an actual grown up grocery list with dinner ingredients and vegetables and such.

I made Euna Mae’s Mexican corn and black bean skillet for dinner last night and it was a hit. The only thing I did differently was buy a rotisserie chicken because if I handle raw chicken then I can’t actually eat it. I have a raw poultry phobia. I also won’t put corn in it next time because P announced at dinner that he hates corn and thinks it ruins everything. This is the first I’ve heard of this in twenty-one years of marriage. However, with or without corn, it’s delicious and an easy meal to cook on a weeknight.

Also, I highly recommend Amy Hannon’s cookbook (She’s the owner of Euna Mae’s) called Love Welcome Serve: Recipes that Gather and Give. If you’re trying to eat Keto or Whole 30 or Paleo or are on a juice cleanse or whatever other nonsense your New Year’s resolution has gotten you into, then this isn’t the book for you. But if you want to make just really good comfort food that’s delicious, then it’s one of my new favorites.

2. A breakfast recipe

Breakfast has been my other dilemma along with getting dressed in the morning. This is what Christmas vacation did to me. Caroline is like me and really doesn’t care about breakfast, but I decided we had to do something better than a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. So I’d been making these breakfast sandwiches that are essentially an egg in a hole with bacon and lettuce and then another piece of toasted bread on top.

But then last week she had two soccer mornings that required her to be at school by 6:00 a.m. and I didn’t feel like I could be coherent enough at 5:15 a.m. to make a breakfast sandwich, so I found a recipe for these sausage, spinach and cheese cups that you can make ahead and then just heat up in the morning. They are delicious, easy and even make a good snack when she gets home from practice in the afternoon and is starving.

I also made a version with a square of crescent roll dough in the bottom of the muffin tin and then egg and bacon. Basically, you could use just about any ingredient combination you want. I plan to make some variation of these from now until the end of the school year. Amen.

3. Bible verse text messages for your teen or tween

A friend passed this along to me and I think it’s a great idea and wanted to share it with you.

“Christian Parenting wants your teen to know their incredible, enduring value! We have created FREE 30 Days of God’s truth TEXTS sent straight to your teen’s phone…and heart. For 30 days they will receive a personalized bible verse on their phone.

In a world full of mixed messages, this is a way to help your teen understand and embrace their identity in Christ.”

Anyway, that’s all for now.

Hope you have a great Tuesday.