Savannah Hendricks's Blog, page 35

Appreciation Monday

Sunsets. I love the colors captured from my place. Even better are the ones over the Pacific Ocean, in California, as a child that I hold in my memory.

How to Make a Stay-cation Feel Like a Vacation

So you have time off work, but limited funds to travel. Here are a few tips to make your stay-cation feel like a real vacation.

First ask yourself where would you go for vacation if you could afford it? Paris? Boston? Hawaii?

What would you do at your destination? Sleep in? Go see sights? Eat out?

What is the weather like at your destination? Warm? Cold? Rainy?

Would you have internet? cellphone? television? Would you read magazines and books?

Make a list of all these items. (Don’t do laundry, run errands, or clean the bathroom). If the place you pick means no access to internet then make yourself a promise that you will not get on the web during your entire stay-cation. Hot weather location, turn up your heater a few degrees and dress in shorts and a t-shirt. Did you plan to go out to eat at your destination, then pick a few local restaurants you have not been to and enjoy some meals out. Visions of Paris? Close your curtains, turn on Pandora (locate cultural music from the area) and enjoy a new bottle of wine you have never tried.

The easiest way to make the vacation seem more real is to think like a kid again. Imagination is key. Speaking of key, how about a stay-cation to The Keys, pick up a key-lime pie and some Margarita mix!

Appreciation Monday

I am going to try something new for the new year. Often times, as we go through life some of us are really good at being positive and some of us a really good at being negative. I honestly admit I’m more towards the negative side on a regular basis. And that’s when this idea came to me. I want to have every Monday be Appreciation Monday on my blog. If you are reading this you somehow gained access to the Internet. Whether it be by walking to the library or driving. By having internet on your home computer or phone. Or maybe you are super smart techie and stealing it from your neighbor’s WiFi signal. Right there you have reasons to be appreciative.

Every Monday for the rest of 2014 I will be posting something that I am appreciative for that day. It might be one thing, it might be 5 things. It might be in words or in pictures. I encourage you to do the same either through comments, or your own social media.

Appreciation Monday

I am appreciative for warm tea, in a warm home.

Throw Back Thursday

Throw back Thursday with the “kids”

 

 

I hope you will all click back over to my blog on Monday, when I announce a new and exciting reoccurring blog post for each Monday for all of 2014.

Cilantro Chicken with Mashed Potatoes

I love cilantro! And I just read that it’s actually full of health benefits. (Click for link). I was looking at creating something new to make for dinner that fit my picky and limited time lifestyle. And I did it. Enjoy!

Cilantro Chicken with Mashed Potatoes Recipe (serves 2):

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

4 table spoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 can chicken broth

1 tablespoon flour

1.5 chicken breast or 4 chicken tenders

1 cup diced cilantro

2 medium potatoes

splash of milk

1 tablespoon butter

Peel and slice your potatoes, add to pot of boiling water, cooking until soft (about 10 mins).

While your potatoes cook, dice up garlic, add to skillet pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. (Dice up your cilantro at this time also. This leaves cutting the raw chicken for last so that you don’t have to wash an extra cutting board).

Slice up the chicken and add to skillet, turn on medium heat, mixing the chicken in the olive oil/salt/pepper/garlic. Just as the chicken is browning and mostly cooked, add in the chicken broth, saving a little of the broth to mix the flour in. Once the chicken broth starts to boil, add the flour/chicken broth mix (whisking to remove lumps), mixing as it thickens the entire mixture in skillet. Once the sauce is thickened to your liking remove from heat and add diced cilantro, mixing until just combined. Now drain the water from the potato pot, grab a fork, add a splash of milk and butter, with the fork mash the potatoes. Grab a plate, scoop some mashed potatoes onto two plates, then dish the cilantro chicken over top and drizzle with the sauce.

3 Things I Learned This Week

Apparently there are cookbooks titled “Dump Cakes” and “Dump Dinners” (It is just like it sounds, you just dump stuff in a pan and cook it) I wondered if it comes with Dump Arteries as well?

Apple Jacks comes with marshmallows!!! (SAY WHAT?!?!?)

Dogs are like kids. They might have 30 toys but they always play with the same 3!

New Year…New Beginnings

I know how cliché to say that a new year will have new beginnings. But for me it is very real. Every time the year comes to an end I often look back on the bad, not the good that has happened. But this year I was aware of this thought process and decided to change it. So in the final days leading up to the new year I reminded myself every time I started to think of the mistakes, issues, or downfalls I would stop my self and think of something good that happened. This was a challenge, not because I didn’t have positives to pull from but because my mind always drifted back to its old ways.

Everyone always asks, so what resolutions did you make? What are your goals? BUT….I want to ask what will you change to make 2014 better than 2013?

For me, I will change my thinking and be bold!

My BOLD thinking: I want to be to writing, what Ron Howard is to movies.

How to Tell When Your Dog Runs Your Life

On the counter next to your salt and pepper shaker… is the peanut butter jar.

You make decisions on going out or having people over based on your dog’s schedule.

You only do yard work to please the dog.

The dog is fed meals before you even start cooking your own.

From my dogs to all my visitors MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

***This is the last blog post until the new year. I hope y’all will visit me again in 2014!! I thank each of you for your comments, likes, and shares in 2013 and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Eve. See you in 2014:)

 

3 Things I Learned This Week

Cookie dough wrapper desperately (“PLEASE”) warns ladies (come on we know it) not to eat raw cookie dough.

Only in Arizona do the electric freeway signs warn drivers “STORM, WET ROADS, DRIVE CAREFUL” (Just in case we were not aware of what was falling from the sky).

The best idea yet, to make sure my Christmas tree only has shatter-proof ornaments. I have dog tails whacking the tree constantly.

Social Media vs. Holiday Cards

As soon as I decorate my place for Christmas I know holiday cards are soon to arrive. Yet over the last five years fewer cards arrive in the mailbox. Last year I believe I only received four physical Christmas cards. But over ten email Christmas letters, and three photo only mail with no family letter.

Has the reason for less Christmas cards, filled with updates of family and friends lessened because of postage rates/cost of cards on budgets? Or is it Facebook, Twitter, and blogs that have erased the need for the yearly update Christmas card?

I admit for me, I send about 5 Christmas cards out to specific people and the rest get an emailed Christmas letter (due to budget restrictions). I do hope to get back to old school Christmas cards.

What are your reasons for sending or not sending holiday cards?