Blessing #44- Sonic Friday

I love having little traditions, and one tradition that I started with Brandon a few months ago is "Sonic Friday."

On Friday, while we are running errands, Brandon and I always stop and get a drink at Sonic. It sounds simple, but it is one of my favorite times of the week.

On Sonic Friday, we both randomly break out into yelling, "Sonic Friday!!!" all throughout the day. When we get to Sonic, Brandon knows that he can pick any small drink he wants without caffeine. (No one wants to see Brandon on caffeine.) On the way to Sonic, Brandon and I discuss what drink he is going to pick, a sprite with bubble gum flavor in it, a green apple slushi, or an apple juice with watermelon mixed in it (sometimes he gets a little crazy).

Brandon loves Sonic Friday, but I think I love it more. As Brandon's mom, I have to tell him no, several times a day, just to keep him safe and well behaved. Last week I had to tell him, "No, you cannot dig up the yard with a snow shovel, and also, hand me the snow shovel, it's as big as you are." He was highly disappointed because he wanted to make our entire yard a construction zone, but I knew that we need to have grass in our front yard instead of mud. However, on Sonic Friday, I get to say the words I rarely get to say, "Whatever you want Brandon....(without caffeine!)"

Psst linked to Works for me Wednesday.

Five Minute Friday: If you met me...

I'm joining Five Minute Friday over at the Gypsy Mama. The rules for the post are that it only has to take you five minutes to write. This week's topic is...


If you met me...


If you met me, you would probably be surprised at how different I sound in real life. Recently, Shad and I were having a serious conversation and when I couldn't get my thoughts together, he said, "I want to talk to internet Stephanie!" It's not that I am any different on my blog,(I try to be very genuine in my writings), but it's just that I suffer from a 15 minute delay brain.


I've talked about this before on facebook, but 15 minute brain is a condition that causes me to think of the perfect thing to say 15 minutes after a conversation ends. I always think of the perfect example or comeback 15 minutes too late, and by that time my insights are useless.


On Calculating Blessings or facebook, I get the chance to take time and put my thoughts together, and my 15 minute delay brain thrives. I guess I'm witty, but not QUICK witted. If only five minute Friday were twenty Minute Friday.

Curse #14- My Sneeze

Around this time of year, thanks to my good friend Mr. Pollen, my allergies start acting up, and I start sneezing. This wouldn't be so bad if my parents had taken the time to teach me how to sneeze, but for some reason they thought that would come naturally.

I have a very unique, multiple machine gun style sneeze, that sounds like I'm having some kind of fit. It started when I was a toddler. I'm sure my parents thought, "That's cute, but she'll probably grow out of it." Well, 20 plus years later and I never grew out of it, and it's not cute anymore.

When I first started dating Shad, my friends asked me, "Has he heard you sneeze yet?" I knew it would come up at some point, but I forgot to mention it to him. Then one day, we were studying in the library (that's right a nice quiet library) when I had a sneezing fit. When I finished, I looked up to see Shad looking at me, totally stunned, and then I said a line I've said hundreds of times in my life, "Oh, by the way, I sneeze weird." Surprisingly, he did not run out the door, and married me anyway.

Once, in eighth grade, a substitute threatened to kick me out of class when he thought I was faking my sneeze to draw attention to myself. Just a few weeks ago, I had a sneezing fit while I was substituting in an eighth grade math class. When I finished, the kids looked frightened, but I just looked up and said, "Oh, by the way, I sneeze weird." So I guess in that instance my sneeze came full circle.

One of my favorite Bible stories is when Elisha raised the Shudamite woman's son from the dead. The Bible says the boy opened his eyes and sneezed seven times. The Bible doesn't say this, but I totally know what happened next. I think the boy looked at Elisha and said, "Oh, by the way, I sneeze weird."

Project Life- March 28 - April 3

If you want to see more Project Life posts, click on the badge at the top of the post to go to The Mom Creative.

Monday, March 28- I could not get a good picture of this, but this week Collin discovered he had hair. He would rub his hair all week. It was too cute!

Tuesday, March 29- Brandon was playing the air drums in our car. When I came to a stop, I turned around and snapped a picture of him. I love this picture so much. It really shows my little guys personality...pure joy.

Sunday, April 3- This is one of Collin's favorite things to do right now. He just loves to be in the floor rolling around.

Blessing #43- New Lamps

I have been wanting to change the look of our house for a few months. Our house is full of warm toned colors, and I'd like to change it to cool toned colors. Friday, I was looking over the living room, and deciding what needed to change, and my eyes got stuck on our lamps. I knew exactly the type of lamp I wanted to have, but I did not think I could find it in our price range.

Saturday morning, I hit a few yard sales, and at the first house I stopped at, I saw the EXACT lamp I had thought about the day before, even the print of the shade was what I had in mind. The seller wanted $30, but I asked her if she'd take $19.50 (I only had $20 and I had to spend 50 cents on a Transformer for B). She agreed, and I got to go home with my lamps.

{before}

{after} I still cannot believe I found the EXACT lamp I wanted. It may be silly to you, but it's just another of God's handfuls to me.

Saturdate with Southern Plate- {banana crumb cake}&{chicken poulet}

In case you don't know what Saturdate with Southern Plate is, you can check it out here.

This week for Saturdate with southern plate, I made chicken poulet and banana crumb cake. (to get the recipes on Southern Plate just click on the words)

Banana Crumb Cake (click on title for recipe)

Saturday night, Shad asked me if I could make something to bring for Sunday school the next morning. I looked through Southern Plate, and realized I had all the ingredients for Banana Crumb Cake in my house, even the old bananas. (I keep old bananas in my freezer.) Even though I had all the ingredients, I broke my #1 rule of cooking...

Always...Always make a test run of a new recipe before you take it anywhere.

Although I broke Rule #1 of cooking, I found a compromise. After it came out of the oven, I cut the cake, and tried a piece. There was no way I was sending it to Sunday School without trying it, and much to my delight it turned out really good! This is a very moist crumb cake (could be all the butter). I made mine the morning of, but it would be safe to make this the night before.

Chicken Poulet(click on the title for recipe)

You can see a picture of this over at Southern Plate if you check the recipe out. Five years ago at a function at the school I was teaching at, I had something similar to this. I fell in love, and it didn't help that I was pregnant at the time. The dish was sooo good I started to crave it. I searched for recipes for "chicken and dressin' " but every recipe had HARD BOILED EGGS in it. (I think I gagged just typing the word) I hate hard boiled eggs so much. It freaks me out just to look at them. Anyway, chicken poulet is exactly what I fell in love with 5 years ago. I'm so excited I have a recipe for it now!

By the way, I'm saving cooking "deviled eggs" in Southern Plate towards the end.

Five minute Friday: a few of my favorite things...

I'm joining Five Minute Friday over at the Gypsy Mama. The rules for the post are that it only has to take you five minutes to write. This week's topic is...


A few of my favorite things...


Ball jars, and flowers, and old Pyrex dishes.

bright colored purses and Lisa Leonard jewelry

finding "You have a package" slip in our PO box

These are a few of my favorite things.

BBQ, twangy accents, and all things southern.

horses, corn, the Bay and all things eastern shore.

These are a few of my favorite things .

Brandon when he first wakes up, and is still kind of sleepy.

Collin when he rolls around squealing all over our floor.

Shad when he plays with our boys.

These are a few of my favorite things.