#48 – Homemade Pizzas – Check!

Do you love crossing things off of a list as much as I do? I think it comes from my Mom carrying a list around with her for years and watching her get satisfaction out of crossing things off…but that’s just a guess. It could also be my own Type-A personality at it’s best!

This past weekend, I was able to highlight/bold an item off of my 101 in 1001 list, and it felt soooo good! After we picked up all the chitlins from their various pick-up places, we went home to make…

Homemade Pizza!!

I don’t know who was more excited…me, or the kids! In a pinch, I’d say it was me that was the most excited, but that’s just my dorkiness coming out…

I found a recipe for the crust from here that sounded too easy not to try. The recipe for the sauce came from here, and I made it ahead of time since it takes a while to cook down. I assembled the rest of the ingredients, organized my “helpers” and got down to making some pizza crusts. For my first attempt, they weren’t bad…but they weren’t great either…too much like bread, not enough like pizza crust. But still yummy!

Tanner wasn’t interested (read trying to be cooler than most in his 13 year-old angst) in forming his own crust, so I made both his and mine. That was totally fine with me, since that gave me one to “practice” on before making mine! LOL! Jenna was all about making her pizza crust, and Brent got all fancy with some tosses and throws just to show off his skills…

Everyone topped their own pizzas and we got ready to put them in the oven. Right before we slid them in the oven, we took out the breadsticks that I had also made (Recipe found here!) We just used the pizza sauce as a dipping sauce, along with some Ranch, for the breadsticks and viola! we had an appetizer to hold us over while our pizzas cooked.  The breadsticks were ah-mazingly delicious, even if I forgot the kosher salt...I think that I'd try this bread as a pizza crust next time, just for grins!

Here’s the final product…mine and Brent's...



Don’t they just look yummy?





Like I said, I want to keep looking for a pizza crust recipe that I like, but the sauce recipe was wonderful…I would agree with her that it might be the best pizza sauce!  As a dipping sauce it was a bit spicy (which you could tone down by eliminating some of the crushed red peppers that it calls for), but on the pizza itself no one complained about anything being too spicy. It must have been good, because not much was left on anyone’s plate!

I’d also like to try some pizza cooking tips – like warming my pizza stones first, scary! – the next time that we do this…which will probably be next weekend. We’re big on pizza around here! 

101 in 1001 Update – February

Wow. I can honestly say that January passed by in a blur of doctor’s visits and fevers! Can you believe that the first month is already over? I almost can’t…

Anyway, I don’t know how I feel about my 101 in 1001 list right now. I didn’t complete any of my goals…which I feel sort of bad about. But I did start a lot of them…which I feel really good about! And since a lot of them are repeated things, like doing something for a whole year or three months or what-not, then maybe I should cut myself some slack, huh? Anyway, you can check out my list here, if you’re interested. And here’s a recap of my progress this month:

Goals started:
#21 – I haven’t mailed them out yet (Mom!), but they’re done and ready to mail…maybe the weather will cooperate and they’ll arrive safely by the end of this week or early next week.
#78 – which I wrote about here. The deadline for this project isn’t until March 1st, so I’ve got this month to finish it up!
#24 – I love, love, love my new hair cut and how it frees up some of my time in the mornings. And the fact that when I’m fixing my hair these days, it’s more than just pulling it back into a ponytail. Which reminds me that I need to schedule my follow-up appt.
#68
#38 – I’m getting caught up with the past seasons…
#60
#92 – I’ve started a new system, but the jury’s still out on if I like it and it will work like I think that it will…so I’m not marking this one as completed just yet.
#13 – constantly clipping those coupons!
#70 – yes, I’m the nerd that’s already started on my taxes…
#20
#55
#15 – Jenna was complaining the other day about never receiving any mail like we do. After trying to explain that most of my “mail” is actually bills, I realized that this was a golden opportunity to cross my monthly handwritten note goal off of my list. I can’t wait for her to get it!

Looking at it all like that, it doesn’t seem like I did that much, but I did! Now I just have to keep the momentum going…for the month of February I plan on keeping up with the ones that I already started and adding a few new ones - hopefully allowing me to marked some items in BOLD this next month! 

How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions or goals or whatever you want to call them? Keeping up or falling behind already?

#78 – Craft Hope – Project 11

On my 101 in 1001 list, I wrote out a goal to do a project with a particular group three times. Now I’m thinking that three times just isn’t enough. But the list is written and who says that I can’t overshoot my own goal? That’s not against the rules as far as I know!

Craft Hope is an organization that I found through a friend at work. M sent me their link, thinking about how crafty I was and just had the feeling that something like what Craft Hope does would click with me…and boy was she right! I really didn’t have time last year (what with being pregnant and then having a newborn around) to participate in any of their projects, so that’s why it ended up on my 101 in 1001 list. I wanted to be sure and do it!

What I like even better is that the founder of Craft Hope is right here in Austin! We could be neighbors! We’re not, and that sounded totally craft-nerdy to say it that way, but I just think that it’s really cool that a mom of three little ones started something this cool. I wish that I had ideas like this!

Anyway, Jade over at Craft Hope just posted their first project for the year, and it’s totally something that I can do! Double score! You can read more about the project here if you’re interested, but I’ll sum it up for you. This project is working with Konbit Sante, a group that is dedicated to helping provide safe (safer) deliveries to babies in Haiti. We all know that the situation in Haiti was bad before it got worse last year, and that goes double for babies. My heart just about broke all to pieces reading the statistics about the children trying to grow up there…and the conditions in which mothers find themselves giving birth. Having just safely delivered my own bundle of joy…well, it’s easy to see why this one hit home with me.

So what Konbit Sante does is to provide the “midwives” with a birthing bag for each new birth (if I’m understanding things correctly) and Craft Hope is teaming up to make a sizeable contribution through its readers of these bags. It’s a simple homemade bag filled with some small, inexpensive medical necessities and also a receiving blanket and stuffed “lovey” for the new baby. That’s where the crafty part comes in. It just amazes me that the list of medical necessities that Haiti doesn’t have access to is a clean razor blade, string, plastic sheeting, gloves and alcohol wipes/hand sanitizer. When I think about all that went into my birth at my clean, sterile hospital with 34 nurses/doctors attending to my every need and whim…it’s just humbling that births in third world, poverty stricken countries happen with a lot less. You can read the specifics here, if you’re interested.

So I’m committed to this project. I’m going to aim for making 5 bags, if the supplies that I need to procure will get me 5. I’m using this simple pattern for the bags, just serging the ends of some baby flannel into receiving blankets, and plan on trying my hand at this tutorial of a “lovey”. I have all the material needed (except for the flannel) already at my house, so the cost should be low on the homemade end of things. Now I just need to round up the medical supplies…and find out about shipping razor blades and Purell across international borders. I’m sure there’s something to declare at the Post Office…

So here goes the start of another goal! I may not actually be able to do much right now other than gather the needed supplies, since Jenna’s got a BIG school project that I’ll be working with her on that’s due the second week of February…but the deadline for sending in the Craft Hope project isn’t until March 1st, so hopefully I’m good to go on timing. Wish me luck!

If this is something that you’re interested in working on too, please click here to read more about it! Even just making up one bag makes a difference to someone…

BIG Changes Are Here!

It’s probably not much to most of you out there reading this little blog of mine, but this was a BIG change for me:

I got a hair cut yesterday.

Remember my 101 in 1001 list? Well, #24 on that list was to get a “good” haircut and maintain it with quarterly visits for a year. Now let me explain why this was a big deal for me.

I don’t mess with my hair. I was born blessed with beautiful, wonderful naturally curly locks of hair. Actually, I was born bald…and stayed that way for almost three years! But I more than made up for it – once the hair decided to come in, it really came in! It’s thick and wonderful. There was a time during my younger years that I stupidly cursed my curly locks and pined for the pin-straight hair that my sister had…but then I embraced my curls and have never looked back since.

There are several advantages to curly hair like mine. It’s typically low maintenance – shower, shampoo, condition, add mousse/gel and blow dry with a diffuser. Simple and easy, and even easier if you follow the no poo method. I can also just let it air dry. It works either way. Sure, like most other curly hair, it frizzes on occasion when the humidity gets too high…and when it gets really long, it becomes sort of less curly as the weight of my hair “pulls out” the curls. But it’s easy to care for. And I don’t have to have regular cuts. I don’t even have to have good cuts – Super Cuts works great for me…”trim the ends off, put in long layers and thin it a little bit” has been my go-to hair cut for years now.

And if I’m being honest, I can admit to going 9-12 months between visits to Super Cuts. I’ve even had someone at my house trim it with regular scissors – oh the horrors! You see, curly hair people can do that…mistakes are easily covered with the curls. It’s literally hair that you can’t really mess up with a quick trim at home. (Unless we’re talking about trimming up your bangs…let’s not get my Mom started on that story!) LOL, Mom!!!

Anyway, back to my story. So I wanted a good hair cut – someone who knows how to cut hair and can match hair styles to a person’s face – and I want to maintain that style for a year. Then if I don’t like it, I can go back to my “bohemian” ways of hair care…

Yesterday was my first appt. I didn’t take a before picture…it was a rough night for me and I thought that I’d spare you. But if you need a before picture, look at my profile picture…I’m sporting a ponytail 95% of the time, so that’s a good one.

And here’s what I’ve got now…

Here’s another shot of it, but you have to promise not to laugh at me. I don’t know what’s up with the face that I was making, other than to say that I was driving and taking my picture (or sitting at a red light trying to take my own picture with my phone while not looking like I was sitting there snapping away pictures of myself!). But it’s a good picture of the hair, so here you go…

I’m not sure about the Farrah side swept bang style that he dried it in. I can’t wait to shower/wash and dry on my own with my own products…but I think that I love it. It’s short…for me…which is what I wanted…but I always fear that I’ll miss the long hair right after I cut it big like this…but I usually end up loving it! What do you think?

January 2011 "Check In"

It seems appropriate to my way of thinking to check in on my 101 in 1001 list here at the middle of the month…so here’s a quick recap:


Projects started:
#24 – made the first appointment for NEXT WEEK! SO over-the-top excited about this!
#68 – I’m on day 11 of 30…doing good so far. Even though this goal might seem small to some of you out there, you must have NO idea of how deep my love for fried/sugared dough goes…it’s pretty deep, friends!
#38 – I’ve finished Disc 1 from the past season for both of my shows…just waiting for the next discs to arrive in my mailbox.
#13 – always, always working on this one – I’m over halfway to my goal!
#20 – one month down, eleven to go!

Projects planned:
#8 and #52 – I’ve compiled a list of “classic” novels that I would be interested in reading and have downloaded some of them to my Kindle reader on my iPhone…but haven’t started any of them yet. All that I downloaded were free, so they count towards that goal too!
#92 – I’ve read a bunch of articles online to see what the “experts” recommend, and I’m developing a system that suits me and our needs. But it’s not perfected yet, so this one’s still in the planning stages.
#44 – I might have an idea on “who” and “what” for the first one…
#21 – I’ve taken a bunch of pictures…now I just need to do the layouts and get these in the mail to complete month 1 of 12

Projects finished:
There’s nothing that I can totally cross off yet, but since it’s only been two weeks I’ll cut myself some slack. At least I’ve started some of them!

Also there are two things that I put on the list that are to be done each and every month of the next three and a half years, so maybe I should check in on those items too…

Monthly projects:
#55 – totally need to do this one…
#15 – I have picked the “who” part for this month, now I just need to do it!

And as always, you can click here at any point to see my 101 in 1001 list…How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions?

101 in 1001

I'm SO excited to post this!  I saw this sort of thing for the first time this year (what rock have I been hiding under?!?!) and got more excited with every blogger's list that I read.  I was super excited to come up with my own list, which you can find here. 

I plan on trying to post about some of the items that I'm able to check off of my list as I complete them, so look forward to hearing more about this.  I'm joining in this with Emily - come on over and join with us!  Don't worry a bit about being a few days behind...more is merrier!!

My 101 in 1001 List

It took me longer to come up with this list than I had thought that it would take.  There are some things on there that are easy things to "check off" and some that will be more of a challenge to accomplish.  I'm hoping that having a good mixture of easy/hard items is what will make this interesting and attainable...I'm making my list a seperate page on my blog, so feel free to click in and check on my progress at any time!  I can't wait to start making things bold as I complete them!