ten for thursday.

1. less than one month to go. 'nough said.

2. watching the last episode with Michael Scott on the Office made me kind of sad.

3. it's been really hot this week and while i'm not complaining about beautiful spring, i am super hot! like acting like it's the dead of summer hot.

4. did you know that our house does not have air conditioning? yeah...

5. husband installed the car seat this week. pretty excellent!

6. i had a moment of strong conviction today as i was driving around Rockville. we live in such a unique place where people are so well off & yet at the same time there are homeless people at every red light. i watched a guy dig through an outside McDonald's trash can for food, and it was devastating to watch. scared but interested for opportunities to make a difference in this city.

7. we are a one car family, and i love it!

8. still lovin this breakfast.

9. this house is turned upside down as i'm rearranging pretty much every room in the house. it would be nice if i picked one room and stuck with it. apparently that's not my methodology.

10. i LOVE a freshly made bed with clean sheets, and that is where i am going right NOW!

is it time yet?

we sure are getting ready for him!

the monday after.

I hope everyone had a beautiful Easter and a blessed weekend. What a sweet time of celebration! We had a low-key weekend. The high pollen count officially kicked off allergies in the Morgan household. Husband was down for the count on Thursday night and remained pretty down throughout the weekend. It's sad watching him suffer with allergies--- he is pitiful.


We were somewhat productive, too, though squeezing in some outdoor beautification {pictures to come}. We played with puppies a lot. And we got to attend a lovely service at our church yesterday morning to celebrate that Christ is Risen!


I know all of the Easter posts were yesterday, but I'm doing one today. Because today, as just an ordinary day, I find it harder to celebrate. It's a Monday. The weekend is over. The food and celebrating is over. But really, it shouldn't be. Because we are forever changed by Easter and given new life and that is worth celebrating, worth living for, worth remembering every day.

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ten for thursday.

This is one of those weeks where I'm like "is it Thursday? what day is today??" I'm confused. But it sure enough is Thursday (if I'm wrong someone please let me know, otherwise this is embarrassing) and time for another ten for thursday!

1. I love our house! As I shared earlier this week, I am loving our house. I don't know if it's spring or the pride of working on the home we own but it is particularly lovely to me these days.

2. We have been working on said house A LOT! Wait til you see my posts on Baby's Room!

3. Speaking of baby's room--- I can't wait to meet our little guy, in hopefully a month!

4. Speaking of baby's room--- I'm amazed at how hard hubby has worked on this room taking it from something very, very ugly to a beautiful place for our little guy to live! Thanks Thomas for your amazingly hard work!

5. This week has been nice and Spring-y. Lots of sunshine with a mixture of rain and storms. I love Spring time!

6. I have flowers blooming outside! A dogwood tree that I get to see from my kitchen window. Tulips on the front porch, and some beautiful bushes along the side walk. {Pictures to come}

7. We are eating on a budget. It's a challenge. Enough said.

8. Really excited for Easter this weekend. What a beautiful time to celebrate our new life in Christ and that we are saved by His grace! This year I'm really wanting to go to a sunrise service-- we'll see if that happens.

9. I'm so far behind on emails. If you have emailed me and I haven't replied, please forgive me. I just cannot seem to get caught up. Soon, I hope. At least that's what I keep telling myself, but then I look outside and it's beautiful and I can't sit down at the computer.

10. I love my dogs! They bring us so much joy. This guy smiles---
Seriously, he is one happy dog! I love looking over and seeing him smile at me. It cracks me up every time. And that red ball by him- it is absolutely his favorite! He takes it with him everywhere. And that hole? It's one of about 50 we have in our backyard from these two, but we don't hold them responsible. Apparently our backyard is a pet cemetery. G.R.O.S.S.

my new favorite.

My new favorite breakfast was discovered today! I love oatmeal but truth is usually when I eat oatmeal I load it with brown sugar! I like it to be sweet and brown sugar in oatmeal is as sweet as it gets. The healthiest option? No. Obviously the oatmeal is good, and it's a great easy breakfast but I don't need that much sugar. Not to mention that soon I will be working on losing a good bit of weight, so I will definitely be looking to cut out the sugar.


The solution to my oatmeal woes...

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal.



Please know that I am aware that I did not invent this breakfast. And I by no means claim that I did. I just simply made it for the first time, it works for me, and I love it!


How to do it:

1. Cut up an apple.
I used a granny smith this morning and it was perfect with its tartness

2. Put apple slices in bowl & sprinkle with cinnamon.

3. Put bowl in microwave.
I'm still not sure exactly how long this should be done for. This morning was 1 minute, 44
seconds (because I NEVER microwave something for a plain old boring number, like 1 1/2
or 2 mins. but that's a post for another day)



4. Prepare oatmeal.
Again for me this involves 1 min., 44 seconds in the microwave

5. Put apples on top of oatmeal, let cool (mine was SO hot!), and enjoy!!!



ps - did I mention how nutritious this is? ohh yeah! fiber, serving of fruit, whole grains. seriously amazing breakfast!

dinner of champions.

We fired up the grill for the first time this season. Since we've been gone we were starting a little late. Normally, we kick off the grilling season with a big, delicious meal, but this was pretty much just as satisfying to me. I have been loving me some hot dogs & this was great! A little mac and cheese to go with it. Yes, we had the dream dinner of a 5 year old and we loved it.

the return.

I can't really express what right now is like except that it is a new season. I feel as if it is spring time not only outside but in our lives as well. We are back. We have returned to Maryland, returned to our home, our dogs, our way of life, and are returning to a sense of normalcy. Since January there has been no normalcy in our lives. Tommy was traveling for the last 3 months and while he had some great experiences and it was ultimately good, it was hard for us. In the mean time we were in such a balance of waiting--- waiting for him to come home, waiting for me to feel better, waiting for Baby Jack to arrive. We are 1 1/2 down and 1 1/2 to go. I feel much, much better than I did and think/hope I will feel completely better once Jack-bug arrives.


I'm sitting here on the couch now with my 2 sweet pups taking an afternoon nap next to me, and life is good. Our love our home! I don't know if it's having been away from it and having been away from a sense of "real-life" or if it's the Spring, or if my eyes have been opened but I am so happy to live here in this house. We have a million projects to do/going on, and I will probably be sharing some of them here. I'm also trying to get back into a rhythm of cooking-- I know, a crazy idea! And perhaps I'll even talk about nutrition some (that is why I started this blog, right?)


Thanks for reading. Thanks for sharing in our lives.

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chocolate chip cookie cream wich.

Nothing like a little mid-week dessert. Actually, I don't think Tuesday counts as mid-week, but it feels really mid-week to me so I'm counting it and made a big dessert to keep on. Also, I wanted to see how many times I could get mid-week into this post.

So today I had a post-dinner "need" for some dessert and because I'm lazy I needed it to be easy. Enter the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. Simple and easy as can be.


1. Make the cookies
*Well to be truthful, I pretty much skipped this step. I had some cookie dough in the
fridge so I didn't have to do any "making" of cookies.



2. Bake the cookies



3. Allow the cookies to cool
*This goes best if you put the cookies on a cookie rack to cool. It's always helpful to have
air going under the cookies too. My husband informs me that this is a principle of science
and can easily explain to me why. I, however, cannot repeat that explanation to you. I
listen though, I promise :)

4. Scoop ice cream onto one of the cookies and sandwich it
*I choose vanilla but you could be bold and mix it up!

5. Put in freezer to harden a bit
*I got antsy so I only left mine in the freezer for like 30 minutes and it was fine.

6. Top as you like!
*These can be versatile. A straight up ice cream cookie sandwich if you like. Or you can
build it up and make it the works. I went with chocolate syrup and whip cream because
you can't go wrong with either of those.


And... Enjoy!






ps - please forgive my incredible over-simplification of this already super simple dessert. i'm a weird one :)

it's not secret.

That I love Tennessee! We like where we live fine enough and love the people we have come to know and be friends with in Maryland but there is just something about Tennessee that gets us every time! Being back here, we so appreciate how beautiful it is! Spring time here is just unmatched.


If I knew how to take a decent picture I could better express the beauty, but this picture from my phone will have to do for now.


I'm off to get an Icee... yumm

what do i do when.

... I come to Tennessee?


I eat of course! I eat lots and lots of food. {*Note: I also really enjoy spending time with my family and friends!} Well, now I'm not eating as much as I usually would due to the pregnancy sickness, but I'm still really enjoying the food I am eating.

And I've been forgetful about taking pictures-- I'm out of the habit.


So far:

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My mom made the most amazing BBQ Chicken that I've ever had! I didn't get a picture of it but it was as delicious as this looks. Also, you'll notice, I like to eat out around here. These are some of my favorite places, and Knoxville has a TON of restaurants!


You can see that I am not going hungry!



Happy Weekend!