this kitten

I can’t believe I’m actually posting pictures of this ridiculous kitten. but hey we’re all human…haha! She looks so cute and harmless doesn’t she…an adorable kitten that anyone would love. amiright?!?!? Oh look at those perfect little ears and don’t even mention the eyes. awwwe!Joseph found her on a road near our house, earlier this month…no kidding! wet and half frozen, she actually didn’t look alive at all. She wasn’t very old…like maybe three weeks and that would be an over estimated guess. After they warmed her up and gave her milk, she began to run around, that very night. So she was named Capitola…(main character out of one of my favorite childhood books, ever!) and she hasn’t ceased to be trouble since she entered our home. When I was younger, kittens never behaved like this one does.I’ve always liked cats, but Capitola is one I absolutely can’t stand…and I’m the only one who doesn’t like her out of my “massive” family. Of course I feed her if no one else is home, calling her names the whole time…haha. Everyone else like seriously LOVES her, I can’t believe it! And no I’m not kidding this cat is insane! she bites you and runs away…never stops messing in everything. Constantly running after your feet…so she accidently gets stepped on and kicked etc. a lot. never learns. She runs from chair to chair around the table, and over you if you happen to be sitting there. Climbs up your leg…and don’t even try to sit on the couch. Eating at OUR kitchen table without experiencing her annoying toe biting under it, is a thing of the past. She doesn’t EVER stop running and picking on everyone and everything – until – suddenly she’s instantly tired and goes to sleep, in some random place. She fell from top of the stairs the other morning…and no she didn’t die or get hurt, kitten’s this awful never do.  I caught her enjoying MY breakfast, when I left it sit unattended for a moment ON the kitchen table this morning. (and she might or might not have had her first lesson in flying after pulling this one) Oh and just last Sunday night she carried two of my sisters socks (one after the other) down the stairs and put them in the “dirty” laundry basket…aka her bed.

The End.

Is a pie a pie?

So every since I was little this is how my family made a pie…a pie that would actually feed all twelve of us, Athertons. I saw this on instagram and realized we’re not the only ones that do this…it’s a big family thing. To be honest until I saw this picture  I’ve never once in my life given any thought to how strange our “pies” looked…our poor company.

Well I asked my boss if he would call that picture a pie. He said no, he’d call it a pudding, custard or a bar. A piece of pie has to be in the pie shape or it’s NOT a pie. Well naturally I disagreed with him. I believe a pie is a pie because of the way it’s made, not based on the shape. Soooooo fast forward 20 minute later in our now heated argument… I thought of pizza! So brilliant of me, I might add=) People call homemade pizza, pizza, and rarely is it ever make it in a circular pan. But as a rule it’s made on a baking sheet and it’s still called pizza, when of course we’re eating our square pieces=) I won the debate!

It’s official pie is pie, solely on the way it’s made! and yeah I made these=)

And who doesn’t like some eye candy?…check out my adorable brother=)

Happy Monday! I hope your week is wonderful!

What’s Sam doing these days

“One touch is all it takes….to make a girl fall in love with a horse”

My baby is taking it easy, pleased to spend these winter months living a good ol’ lazy life. He’s enjoying all the long winter nights tucked away in his stall. By the way it’s his absolute favorite place in the whole world to be. Surrounded by food day and night, he couldn’t ask for a better way to wait for spring=) I only ride him over my lunch breaks and on the weekends if it’s sunny and not windy. (he doesn’t like wind or frozen ground and I like to actually feel my fingers and toes when I ride). He deserves the break -  I mean he’s 22! even if I constantly need to remind myself of this permanent fact.

But in the middle of my day, when I’m stressed…sometimes to the point of tears I go to the barn and steady my emotions by leaning on my understanding horse, Sam.

This quote sums up how I feel…

“So now again I look to my horse to heal me, to reassemble the broken parts. To steady my thoughts, which drift and spiral like wondering planets, just outside their proper orbit. That sweet horsey smell, the familiar cadence of a canter, the sound of hooves in the aisleway – these are the things that keep me the sane.”   ~Paige Cade, Tobego Sport HorsesBelow is Buster…he always leaves his tongue out after he drinks water, no matter the temp outside. (It was in the single digits out, when I took these pictures of him). I just HAD to share these=)

I enjoy standing in the open doorway, before I close it for the night, pausing for a moment to listen to the horses munching their grain. The smell of grain, hay, dust and horses all blended together, creating a perfect moment for this horse lover=)

“No matter how BAD your day is…. There is Always someone waiting for you at the barn”

Thanks for reading=)

My week alone in Shipshewana

Tomorrow I’m going up to Shipshewana Indiana for my quarterly (yeah I’m a bookkeeper, even use those terms in my everyday life…haha) checkup with my food nutrition advisor. In the spirit of that, dreaded three and a half hour drive, I thought I’d share some photos from my time there. The very first week of my favorite month (December), alone (when I love to be with my family, this time of year), missing my horse, and for an entire WEEK! I was lonely  to say the least…A little back ground on why I was there….I went for week of meetings with a ministry trained to help people Biblically deal with life issues.

I brought most of my food with me, so I even ate healthy here….lol=) For breakfast I took a couple cups of dry oat for overnight oatmeal. As you can see I love cauliflower…haha!Being off work for a week never works for the bookkeeper/secretary of a business…so here was my makeshift “work desk” for the week.  I was in communication everyday with my boss, definitely NOT a vacation at all!My Bible/journal/study guide-they go with me everywhere=)And I did it…I took my yoga mat and resistance band with me…a hotel gym is always empty, so I spent most of my evenings taking advantage of all that FREE equipment, as well=) Oh and look who my boss sent up to spend the day with me, Christina…my BEST friend! Here is how she looks going onto her second 24 hours with no sleep...lovely=)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Country Christmas was on the first night there…and since we don’t have a TV at home, I never watch it. But here to the one plus to being in a hotel=) in December too! I got so tired of buggies, but then again I’m tired of them at home too…so just increase their popularity by say a couple hundred and I could have just gone insane…haha!Since most of the populous, up in this part of Indiana ,is mainly Amish I didn’t see a whole lot of Christmas lights, except for right in town. I forgot to bring the power cord for my computer and the nearest Staples was was about a half an hour west of me. There I got to see some lovely Christmas lights. But of course I was driving and taking pictures is never in the equation when I am.This horse is insanely cute! At a little cafè with Christina…the food was delicious! 

Another disappointment of this week was that I, normally a very good sleeper, didn’t sleep through the night once while I was there. When I got home I went straight to bed. And boy did it feel soooo good to actually sleep=)

I had such a good time despite being by myself for a week and the lack of proper sleep. It was lonely but I learned so much…and am so glad I took the time and spent the money to do this. It was an investment that will continue to guide and support me every single day, for years to come.

the time I made a million muffins….

….not really more like a hundred, haha! but it sure felt like I made a million. I made these as Christmas gifts back in December for all my dad’s business’s customers. I hope next year to do something different, I enjoyed it don’t get me wrong, but it’s a ton of work and around the holidays that’s pretty much the last thing I want to be doing. cooking should always be slow, and not stressed equaling a perfect recipe for enjoyment.

And I never took a picture of the final baskets. Crazy! I didn’t realized this until I was editing these today…it’s a long story so I won’t bother you with the uninteresting details of the many whys=)

I made carrot/pineapple muffins, cranberry/pecan muffins, banana/chocolate chip muffins, and lastly applesauce/walnut muffins. I baked all afternoon and wrote some about it over here. After I made a batch of every single muffin I had my parents and siblings taste them, and then tell me if I need to add more or less of something etc. The problem at my house isn’t finding people to test taste, but to get them to stop once they have had a bite.

Normally when I cook I’ll finish up making one kind of cookie, muffin etc. I then clean everything up and start on the next kind, in this case it would have been muffins. But this wasn’t what happened this time. I made one batch of one kind and then of a different kind and so on. So I had one huge mess! And we don’t have a lot of muffin tin, only enough to fill our oven  twice. It works out okay. I pulled one batch (24 muffins) out of them oven and put the next ones in. Then wait on the “done batch” to cool for 10 min and then I’d take them out of then tins. And refill them in time to repeat the entire process. Sounds easy, but then put “making up the muffin batter” the entire time into the equation. I was a bit stressed at times…haha.

My mom helped put the muffins, after they had cooled completely, in the muffin cups, even my dad was helping at one time=) Speaking of my dad he even went to the store three times for us that night to get some much needed forgotten items/ingredients. He left for his final trip at 11:30, such a trooper. 

And you come to think of it, I didn’t even taste one myself! Shame on me! lol I will next time for sure…

The banana/chocolate chip were by far everyone’s favorite=)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The customers were all thrilled, thankfully! Grace used to make these for these same customers every year, before I took over her job…she was known, at that time, as the “Muffin Girl” so I was trying to fill some pretty large shoes. I hope I did okay=)

Have a fabulous weekend! Mine will be spent studying=)

 

thoughts…about my future

Lewis J. Walker was asked, “What keeps people from being successful?” Walker replied, “Fuzzy goals.” For example, you may have a goal of owning a cabin in the mountains someday. That’s a fuzzy goal. Someday is the problem. Your goal isn’t specific so it’s not likely to happen. If you truly want a cabin in the mountains, you will need to go find the mountain, find out how much the cabin costs now and how much it will cost later. Then you need to determine how much to save per month. If you do that, you will probably get a cabin. If you don’t it probably won’t happen.

Goals are necessary. But fuzzy goals, uncoupled from an action plan, are delusions. They are rusting boxcars on a sidetrack.

Since the first day of the year I started thinking through my goals for 2015, plus my life goals. And have really been defining them…taking the time to research the cost of “my cabin”.

So I’ve come to the solid decision that this year will not be about shopping, concerts, new clothes, eating out, vacations, hanging out with friends. But my focus will be on:

Working - Saving Money (you probably guessed that by now)

The inner me - getting healthy (spiritually, physically, and mentally).

Simple life enjoyments - my horse, running, gardening, reading (random history and science (my silent love) books

Study – bookkeeping/accounting and hey I might even pick up some photography books. Also I hope to learn some more of the necessary web skills to better my blogging=)
“One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things” John Burroughs

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of you success is found in your daily routine”. ~John C. Maxwell

Source: Business Digest

casey crocker’s Fried Chicken

It was so nice visiting with Casey last Sunday. We didn’t meet in December, because of all the holiday craziness, and I didn’t realize how much I had missed this beautiful face. Every time I go to her home, Carl and she have finished one more room and this time it was the dinning room, I felt like I had walked into room straight from pinterest…like those don’t seriously exist, but hey. I’m a believer now=) It’s so lovely!!!! Their entire house is just darling and the more the they do to it the cuter it get=)

So onto the fried chicken. Now this was the coolest thing for me to watch her make…coming from a person who’s never fried anything in their life. But after seeing this process, I’m confident that I can make fried chicken. well about 90% sure…haha. But she honestly made it look so easy. But then I shouldn’t be to ambitious, Casey makes everything look easy.

This is the messy, but most significant, part. I sounded like a little kid (haha, I squealed) when she started turning them the first time. Like seriously she’s made fried chicken!Looks so good!!!!

I sorta got carried away with the after pictures, I was so amazed! That I actually witnessed fried chicken being made! and the kitchen wasn’t covered in grease. But knowing me, my kitchen probably would be.

Jump over to Casey’s blog for this fried chicken recipe=) you know you want to make it.