may richer, fuller be

happy national peanut butter day!

Christine — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:22:24 +0000

Just a little something for National Peanut Butter Day. What better than peanut butter’s favorite partner in crime, chocolate, to celebrate? These are also now known as black and gold cookies as my ‘Dores are playing their rivals from Knoxville tonight. Recipe from here. Go ‘Dores!

Filed under: food Tagged: 'dores, baking, chocolate, commodores, cookies, food, peanut butter, vanderbilt, yum

go bananas

Christine — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:43:06 +0000

If you’re like me, you always wind up buying a few too many bananas at the grocery store. However, this is the best kind of mistake because then I can bake this:

I added a few chocolate chips to half the batter for some mini loaves.

Recipe adapted from here. I used half white sugar and half brown sugar, and I tossed in just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg for a little bit of added flavor. Yum!

Filed under: food Tagged: baking, banana, banana bread, bread, food, recipes, yummm

new year, new calendar

Christine — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:58:09 +0000

Do you ever get tired of looking at the same thing on your wall? I do, especially when what is on the wall never looked exactly like I wanted. So, over the break, I took a few minutes to redesign this wall in my kitchen. A new dry erase calendar and mini chalkboards balanced with some black and white photos from my recent trip to NYC. I’m pleased with the outcome!

The calendar is just a frame I got half price at Hobby Lobby. I turned around the paper insert and used double sided tape to attach a variety of paint chips I trimmed. I alternated the paint chips between horizontal and vertical for a bit more of a stylized look, but I bet it would look great either way! Then, I just inserted the paper back in, and my calendar was finished! I use dry erase markers to add events. Just a little bit of erasing and it will be ready to go again next month.

The chalkboards came with natural wood frames, so I just quickly threw on some black paint, and they were finished.

I’m very pleased with the result! The small pop of green is just enough for my kitchen. Yay for new years and new decorations!

Filed under: crafts

daylight

Christine — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:54:48 +0000

Since I’m not seeing much daylight these days, here are a handful of photos from my recent trip to NYC. Specifically, I took these at Ellis Island in the Registry Room. Sometimes the light is even prettier inside!

Filed under: other Tagged: daylight, ellis island, light, nyc, photography, photos

christine and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Christine — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:22:48 +0000

Remember this book?

That was my day. At least, I thought that is what it was going to be. I just began a new six week rotation. After deciding last month that I’m 150% going in one direction once school is over, I was not looking forward to this rotation. Combine that with the fact that yesterday’s orientation was more confusing than helpful, I had to be there at 5:30 this morning, and it was cold outside. I’m talking like 14 degrees Fahrenheit. That qualifies as bitterly cold. So, what was I? I was bitter. I was not happy about being awake that early, the cold, or the fact that for the fifth time in the past six months I have to pick up and learn something new. I was not happy that I was basically entering an entirely new world…and I didn’t know what I was doing. Plus, there are acronyms. Lots of acronyms. Deciphering a note took much more time than I had planned to spend. On top of this, the few rules I did cling onto yesterday were immediately changed by my superiors and I felt inferior. I felt like I couldn’t do anything right, like I was dumb, and like I wanted to just start over.

So I did.

Isn’t that wonderful? I did. I whined on Twitter and to a few friends who understand, and then I bucked up and changed the course of my day. You know what? It worked.

It is what it is. Next time, I’ll realize this sooner.

No more terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days for this girl! There are too few of them to spend them that way.

Filed under: blessings, learning