Random Thursday: Inspiring Art Edition

Wahoo! It's

I love me a random Thursday. Friday is just around the corner!

Today's topic is

I have blogged about this in the past, but I have always loved the painting Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo. It is hung up in my living room (even though it terrified Isaac when it was younger and Ryan keeps trying to make it go away).

There was a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum. I was really moved by the story behind this and how it represents Frida's loneliness. It was the only time a piece of artwork has brought me to tears.

I am lucky enough to live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the city with the most murals in the whole world! They are used to beautify empty lots and to combat graffiti. I love that you can just round a corner in a semi-sketchy neighborhood and then be surprised by a beautiful work of art on the side of an abandoned building. Many honor Philadelphia natives and are painted by everyday people or school children who work with the mural arts program. If you are ever in Philadelphia, there are a few different mural tours you can take. My sister and I did a walking one that was exhausting but really informative. Here are a few murals.

Hang in there! Friday is coming!!

Random Thursday

Hey there,

It's time for another

Today's topic is

I love me an unscheduled rainy Saturday. Bonus points if Isaac is at his dad's and Ryan is working.

1. A marathon of a TV on demand, on the DVR or from Netflix. There is something so satisfying about devouring a season of a great show in an weekend.

2. A giant mug of hot chocolate or hot tea.

3. Calling and having a long chat with an old friend (or sister who lives across the world).

4. Bake something yummy. Try out a decadent pinterest recipe.

I have a nice weekend ahead of me of soccer, soccer and more soccer. I say it like I'm grumbling but I actually enjoy it. Ryan works all weekend but my mom is coming in Saturday to do a little shopping before Isaac's game, so that should be quite fun. I'm also trying to get a repair guy out to the house since both the washer AND the dryer decided to crap out on us during the past week. Praying it is an easy fix and we don't need to buy two huge new appliances we can't afford. In the mean time, we have been getting buy sending laundry back and forth with my mom, but that can't go on forever.

Happy Friday!

Random Thursday - Easy Recipe Edition

I am in love with the topic today.  I can be sooooooooooooo lazy with cooking and I can't be bothered with weird ingredients or too many steps, especially on busy nights after school.

I like to eat a lot of chicken and I like anything with Mexican flavors, so I pretty much always keep cheddar cheese, black beans, taco seasonin packets, etc. on hand.  Here is a little list of some of my go to dinners with links from the interwebs.

Ranch Cheddar Chicken - this one is easy and yummy and is one of those rare meals that everyone in the family will eat.  I have used Fiesta Ranch mix before instead of regular ranch and that was yummy too.

Chicken Enchilada Pasta - this is SO YUMMY.  Don't be intimidated by the longest list of ingredients.  It is not hard to make.

This is my go to pasta salad for barbecues or picnics.  We also have it as a main dish quite a bit.  I always leave the olives out BECAUSE OLIVES ARE DISGUSTING!

This isn't a main dish but I posted here about ridiculously easy pumpkin muffins.  I made them last Thanksgiving and people were so impressed and they are really almost embarassingly easy.  

These two recipes are from a cookbook and are also easy go tos.

Fiesta Quesadillas

1 (11 oz) corn with red and green peppers, drained

1 (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles

1 cup fat-free refried beans

8 (8 to 10 inch) fat-free tortillas

1 cup (4 oz) shredded colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend

1. Mix up corn, chiles and refried beans. Spread 1/4 of the mixture on a tortilla. Top with another tortillas

2. So the book tells you to put these on the grill, but I don't have one. It also suggests the broiler. I usually just put it in a frying pan with a little Pam on low heat for about 3-5 mins. I turn it over with a pancake turner and do the other side for about 3 minutes, making sure all the cheese is melted.

3. Cut into wedges and eat. I had mine with tomato soup. I'm a big soup person.

Makes 4 quesadillas (450 calories each).

Nacho Bean Soup

1 (14.5 oz) can ready-to-serve vegetable broth 1 cup of milk 2 tablespoons all purpose flour 1 (15.5 oz) can pinto beans, drained, rinsed 2 cups (8 oz) shredded taco flavored cheese blend 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I didn't have any, so I just used dried) 1 cup broken tortilla or corn chips

1. In large saucepan, combine broth, milk and flour; blend well. Cooke and stire over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil.

2. Stir in beans, chiles, cheese and cilantro. Cook 5 mins or until thoroughly heated and cheese melted, stirring constantly. Sprinkle individual servings with tortilla chips.

Makes 3 (1.5 cup) servings.

While it doesn't exactly fall into the "healthy" category (590 calories!) it definitely was easy and delicious. 

Linking up with Lin and the other girls.  Can't wait to some new recipes. 

Random Thursday - Photo Dump Edition

Yay... it's that time to link up with the girls for another

 

 

This week's topic is a good one for people like me that can spend an hour going through facebook photo albums of people I have never even met... (Please tell me I am not the only one).... 

 

Most of my recent pictures are from my trip to Orlando.  I will try to choose more of the "random" ones to share, as well as some others.  I am actually in the process of trying to upload all of the pictures from my phone because I am almost out of memory.  BUT ANYWAYS...

 

This was Ryan's random purchase from a vending machine at a rest stop in North Carolina.  It's a little can of baked beans and hot dogs, a package of crackers and two pieces of candy.  I thought it was revolting but he was rather tickled by it.

 

Favorite vacation picture of the trip.  This was our first morning at the hotel pool.  Tell me my kid is not ADORABLE.

My sister made this for me and I LOVE it.  (In case you don't know, Horne is my new married name).  We have to find the perfect spot for it. 

 

This is a groundhog(??) that lives with it's family outside my classroom (and by classroom, I mean trailed parked outside of the school).  I see him a few times a week.   The kids love spotting him.

 

This was during my brother's wedding.  Isaac was getting a bit restless during the reception and asked if it was okay to kick his soccer ball around the terrace.  I said that would be fine.  Soon, all of the groomsmen had ditched the reception and were joining him.

 

 

Today is my last full day of school with kids.  That is, the kiddos have early dismissal Friday and Monday, although I have to work full days.  I will  be busy packing up my classroom and moving to a more centrally located one (yay!).  I am also teaching ESY (summer school with special educations students) so there is lots to do to prepare. 

 

Have a happy day!

 

Random Thursday Vlogitty Vlog

It's not Friday yet, but we're getting there. Time for another

 

 

 

 

Today's topic is...

I decided to participate vlog style (see my other attempt at vlogging here). And yes, the irony that I am discussing beauty products while my hair is unbrushed and I am not wearing a stitch of make-up is not lost on me.  Hey, it was a long day at work. 

Moisturizer / Foundation /  Shower smoothie /  Toner /  Face wash / Foot lotion / Foot mask /  Face scrub / Naked Palette /  Naked 2  /  Perfume / More perfume

Linking up with Lin, Em, and Meg

Random Thursday - Day in the Life Edition

This week's topic is an interesting one for other people, but not that exciting for me. 

My day starts at 6:00 when my alarm goes off.  I hit snooze a few times and wake up at 6:30 and check facebook/e-mail/blogs about half of the time .  The other half of the time I sleep another fifteen minutes or so and then throw myself around the house frantically trying to do everything that needs done before work.

The morning routine includes making lunches (if I haven't taken the time to make them the night before), breakfast for me, Isaac and on occasion, Ryan, packing up all of the schoolbags, sometimes a shower, approving Isaac's outfit (always a lot of drama with him and clothes), sometimes make up, rarely blow drying, and the goal is to be dropping Isaac at school by 7:30. 

Once I roll out of Isaac's school I make it over the bridge to my school, hopefully by 7:45 (though school doesn't start till 8, so I do have a built in cushion for disasters).  If I have time, I may treat myself to something from the Dunkin Donuts drive through.  My school is in the middle of PSSA hell mania.  Our theme is "Rock the PSSA".  I teach third grade, but my classroom is in the fifth grade wing, so I have a fifth grade poster on my door.  This morning I wrote myself up a to do list before dashing off to a faculty meeting.  It's the end of the marking period which always means a rush in paperwork due.  Plus all of the end of the year paperwork is due in only a few short weeks. The last shot is my computer screen as I have been doing progress reports any spare minute. 

At around 8:50 the kids roll in and the day begins.  I have to pull some kids to do some quick reading screeners and then a few other kids to do some math while my co-teacher led a multiplication lesson.  A reading test rounded out the morning, before lunch and then freezing at recess duty.  It was sunny and nice looking but still FREEZING.  Where's spring?  After recess I had a prep period (more paperwork!), got some adapted homework together for my IEP kiddos, and then I pulled a small group out for a reading skills group.  It was a good day at work overall.  I stayed an extra hour or so to keep working on paperwork and then headed home.

 

When I got home, Ryan had already put a frozen lasagna in the oven.  He and I cleaned up and vacuumed the bedroom quickly (long overdue!), tried to catch up on the dishes, tidied the kitchen, played a little Ruzzle, threw some dinner rolls in and then we all had a decent family dinner.

Isaac has Cub Scouts on Wednesdays, so that was our next stop.  We didn't have any errands to run today, so I stayed in the car and worked on my new book The Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult.  After was done we had a parent meeting where we talked about things like scout camp.  They want us all to volunteer at least one day of the weeklong camp, which I can totally do in the summer.  Afterwards Isaac told me that he would really rather have Ryan do it because I will surely embarrass him.  WELL then. 

I rounded out the night with a little bit of American Idol.  (I know Lazaro is horrible, but I vote for him because it irritates Ryan).  Then we watched Survivor on the DVR and went to bed.

Super exciting life I lead on a random Wednesday, right?

Random Thursday

Hey, hey! It's not Friday yet, but welcome back to another

 

I have my very own Random Thursday button now.  How frickin' sweet is that?

 

When I met Ryan, there were probably about two shows I watched with any kind of regularity.  Ryan loves TV and he has hooked me on so many more shows that I really enjoy: Under Cover Boss, CatFish, Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, Joe Schmo Show to name a few...  He also has a penchant for truly *bad* TV (American Idol and The Bachelor, I'm looking at you...) 

 

At any rate, the topic for this week is  
 

Here are some I wasted my life on... (and I hope I am not dating myself too much with a few of these)

1. Who Wants to Marry a Mult-Millionaire?
Long before The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, there was Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?  This aired when I was in college and is one of those shows I remember us all piling into a tiny dorm room to watch.  It aired as a two hour special.  I remember as I watched it feeling partially fascinated and partially disgusted.

2. Dinosaurs
Creepy Jim Henson Dinosaurs.  The main joke was the baby always hitting his dad in the head with a frying pan shouting "Not the Mama!"  Fun fact: the series ended when an asteroid hit the earth killing all dinosaurs and had a "Warning, this may be disturbing to young viewers" message before it aired.



3. Dora the Explorer
I was lucky that when Isaac was a preschooler he took only a fleeting interest in this show.  It could have been so much worse.  She addresses her viewers directly and then stares creepily at you during an uncomfortably long pause while you have to decide if it is less bizarre to answer her or ignore her.

4.  American Idol
I'm sorry but this show just needs to end.  I have never gotten into the series really.  When I worked at a group home, the staff would often put it on in the evenings, so I have sort of followed other seasons in a disinterested way.  I have caught a little bit of this season and it has hit a new low now that this is the panel of judges:

Nicki Minaj is HORRIFIC.  Enough said.

5. A Baby Story on TLC.
 It pretty much has the same plot: a lady is pregnant and excited and then she has a baby.