December & Where I’m At

Dec11

Am I the only one who is having a hard time believing the calendar is down to just one page? I can’t fathom how quickly the year passed by! It seems like just yesterday I packing up the Christmas decorations from last year. I guess it’s true that the older you get the faster time flies.

So I’ve decided to try to do a little “Where I’m at” feature on the blog every couple week! A little insight into the here and now of my life! I know you’re all super excited about this! 😉

Anyways as I mentioned yesterday my morning routine right now involves getting up and searching the house for Elfonzo and the cracking open my advent calendar. My mornings are actually designated “me time”. It’s the time of the day I take things slow and enjoy the quiet. I watch the birds that visit my feeder, sip my coffee, cuddle with Muffin. I read blogs, check emails, scroll through Instagram and contemplate the day ahead! I think quiet time is one of the most valuable things a person can grant them self. In the mornings I also like to spread out my mat and get in some yoga and stretching. Not every single morning is like this but as many as possible.

It was this morning during my quiet time while reading some other blogs that I decided to try a new way of sharing where I’m at.

Making: I’m currently making the best of my quiet time this morning!

Thinking about: Tonight! Katie and I have a Lululemon shopping date! I’m pretty excited about this.

Cooking: Currently nothing but later I’m going to cook the Caribbean chicken breasts that the guy at our local Clancy’s location whipped up for me despite them being very out of season!

Drinking: Coffee cake tea from David’s tea. It was yesterday’s offering in the advent calendar and I really like the flavor.

Reading: I just started The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I’m only a few pages in but so far so good.

Wanting: To feel better and to know if I’m pregnant this month. I’m extremely frustrated with how awful I’ve felt for the last month. It started with a bad cold which inevitably led to a Lupus flare. I then faced 2 weeks of almost non stop nausea followed by extreme stomach pain. Friday night got to the point that in all honesty I should have went to the hospital. I am stubborn, I’m working on it. After a mini family intervention I realized it wasn’t in my best interest to run the Santa shuffle last weekend.

Looking: I’m looking forward to Emma and I’s lunch date with Santa this weekend.

Wasting: half a loaf of cranberry pecan bread 😦 it went super hard within one day of buying it. I hate wasting food, it’s so hard on the environment and wallet.

Wishing: The rain would stay away and we could keep the uncomplicated dusting of snow all month long.

Enjoying: I’m enjoying the quiet and the simple sights and smells of christmas throughout my home. I’m also enjoying the lovely cuddles Muffin is smothering upon me!

Waiting: For Kevin to wake up so we can decide if its Christmas tree chopping day! And when he wakes up he gets to open another present from his personalized advent calendar I made this year.

Liking: The snowflake decorations and Christmas lights Kevin put up outside last weekend!

Wondering: If Muffin has any idea how much space she manages to take up for such a tiny dog! This morning she has decided my boobs are in fact pillows!

Loving: My life! Despite being sick I still love my life and everyone I share it with.

Hoping: That I can get back to the gym and a routine soon.

Marveling: at the variety of birds my feeders attract! My little friends visit from sun up to sundown everyday. They chirp and sing happily reminding me they are thankful for all the treats I provide them. The flock of tiny tits are my favorite! I find their social feeding flock intriguing!

Needing: a massage. I think I’m going to book one for this weekend. A couples massage in fact so I can spend more time with Kevin.

Smelling: the most amazing Bath and body works Christmas candle. It’s called “’tis the season”. It smells like that cinnamon christmas spicy scent that reminds me of christmas.

Wearing: my new fleece snowflake pj’s!!! So warm and soft!

Hearing: Jason Derulo The other side

Following/Pinning lately I’ve been searching Pinterest for new Muffin recipes. It inspired me to create my own raspberry orange muffin recipe. I will share that recipe very soon. So yummy.

Noticing: my lack of in person interaction. Lately I’ve drifted away from spending time with friends in person. Mostly because the effort it requires and the pain I’m in. I need to change this. I miss my girls!

Avoiding: folding laundry!

Knowing: I am missed.

Disliking: how fast December is flying by and that Kevin doesn’t get Thursdays off any more.

Thinking: How lucky I am to have the life I do. To have this quiet time to reflect, cuddle, and blog!

Feeling: warm! Thanks to the fleece pj’s, electric blanket, and Muffin!

Bookmarking: A friends new life blog and looking for new realistic healthy living blogs to follow!

Giggling: at Mr. Nutty who has once again precariously perched himself on the bird feeder for a snack! He’s quite the little acrobat. I adore his antics.

David’s Tea 24 Days Of Tea! The First 10!

Dec10

Hi friends! So as I mentioned a while back I was lucky enough to get my hands a highly sought after David’s tea 24 days of tea advent calendar back in November!

I have been enjoying my morning ritual all month of searching the house to see what sort of trouble Elfonzo is up to and then cracking open the little cardboard window to see what kind of tea treat awaits me! Later on in the day, usually after lunch I break into my Lindt advent to have a tasty chocolate!

The first 10 days of tea have been 80% delightful!

Day 1) White Chocolate Frost

A sweet slightly minty tea that definitely tastes like white chocolate! Loved it!

Day 2) Alpine punch

One of my favorite teas! I had tried this before and in fact own a large can of it! It reminds me of almond marzipan. It’s delightful cold as well!

Day 3) Blueberry Jam

I didn’t even have to taste it! It was love at first smell! Once I tasted it I knew it would become a staple. Such a perfect blueberry taste and slight sweetness!

Day 4) Forever Nuts

This delight was my first introduction to David’s tea thanks to my Candy swap partner earlier this year! It’s still one of my favorites. It’s sweet and has a nutty apple flavor! So good!

Day 5) Stormy night

Sadly not a fan of this tea. It wasn’t horrible but I couldn’t get into the chocolate cinnamon flavors. My sister in law loved it though so to each their own.

Day 6) Genmachia

Elfonzo took it upon himself to bust into my tea calendar! This is an interesting twist on normal green tea. It is slightly sweeter and more flavorful.

Day 7) Strawberry rhubarb parfait

I will be drinking a lot of this iced. A perfect combination of sweet strawberries and tart rhubarb with a touch of creaminess.

Day 8) Mango Madness

Another spectacular fruit tea. Also works well iced. The fruity citrus flavor was slightly pineapple infused. So good!

Day 9) Silk Dragon Jasmine

Not a fan, at all! The taste, the smell… Not my cup of tea! It isn’t David’s fault! It’s jasmines fault 😉 I cannot stand the taste or smell of that little flower. It was bound to happen, you can’t win them all.

Finally that brings us to today! Day 10) Coffee cake!

The name says it all. It tastes just like a sweet slice of coffee cake. I made myself a tea latte with almond nog and it was perfection.

I’m thoroughly enjoying trying all these new teas. Such a great way to discover new flavors without staring wide eyed and lost at the huge wall of tea in David’s!

Thankful Thursday ~ November 28

Nov29

I spent yesterday cooking up a turkey feast for my family. We decided to celebrate American Thanksgiving and by the time everyone left I was exhausted! Content but exhausted. I planted myself on the couch, sipped a vodka and cranberry in a fancy glass and promptly fell asleep!

As many of you know our family has been dealt a rather tough hand in the autoimmune department. My brother has a swiftly progressive form of Multiple sclerosis and I have my ever annoying bout of Lupus. We take life one day at a time and do what we can when we can! I for one am a firm believer that its not the hand life deals you that matters it’s how you play it!

Yesterday when the mail arrived my brother handed me a card. I ripped it open and upon reading it my eyes instantly filled with tears. Back in the spring a large group of us formed a team for our local MS walk. We did amazing in the fundraising department thanks to all our generous friends, family, coworkers and even strangers. I was shocked how much we raised as a team! The card I received yesterday was a thank you card. It was from a local girl who received a new wheelchair from the MS society thanks in large part to our fundraising efforts.

Of course I knew our donations and efforts were for a great cause but receiving that card really drove it home for me.

This thankful Thursday found me being acutely aware of how much something I did made someone else so thankful. I am not really sure how to verbalize my feelings on this. I am thankful our efforts made such a difference in someone’s life. I am thankful I was able to do something like that for someone else. I am thankful for all those who donated and fundraised. I am thankful that despite these auto immune issues that change my brother and I’s daily lives we still bonded together to try to help others.

I look around my house, my life and realize I am extremely blessed. There is very little I do without. I am spoiled. I have more then I need. I know this, I acknowledge it and I am thankful for what I have. My life is full of little things that bring me comfort and make me happy. Things many people can’t afford. My home is warm and cozy, my clothes are warm and cozy. My heart is full of love for and from those around me. I am thankful that I am blessed enough to be able to help others.

Vegas 2013

Nov23

Kevin and I spent last week in Vegas! It was a great vacation and a great way to celebrate our third wedding anniversary and Kevin’s 30 birthday!

I don’t have a ton of photos to share with you from the trip because I didn’t want to be spending all our time snapping photos! The trip was about spending time together and enjoying Vegas! Needless to say we rocked it!

The weather, the food, the shopping were all magnificent! As always! We have been to Vegas a number of times and these things are yet to disappoint! I was super excited to find the Nike studio wraps that I saw online and have lusted after for months!

Yoga just got cuter 😉

The food! Seriously Vegas is a foodie heaven! Everything we ate was outstanding. I made a point of not letting myself feel guilty for enjoying the food despite the calories. After all we were on vacation! Plus all the walking helped burn off some calories! We had omelets at Cafe Bellagio, Gourmet burgers at The Paris, Pizza at The California pizza kitchen, and many amazing meals in between!

We went to the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Soul2soul concert at the Venetian and I have to say it was the best concert I’ve ever been to! The small venue paired with the fact we got upgraded to amazing seats was absolute perfection! For a good portion of the night Tim and Faith were close enough to touch! I may or may not have had a star struck moment over Tim McGraw! It was the best way to spend a Friday night in Vegas!

Kevin took me to the Mirage to see the dolphins and big kitty’s because he knows the Secret garden is one of my absolute happy places . There is something so calming about being so near to those dolphins. I could sit there for hours watching them play. No matter how many times we go to Vegas the experience never gets old.

We did all sorts of fun stuff and then we hung out in the pool and the hot tub for a while to unwind. We sipped drinks, we gambled, we just enjoyed our time together just the two of us.
It was amazing and I can’t wait until May to do it all again!

Thankful Thursday ~November 21

Nov21

I am gonna keep this short and sweet because I’m exhausted and still battling a cold!

I am thankful for the woman who saw our house was on fire on Monday and called 911! I am thankful my brother and husband stayed calm and battled the fire until the firemen arrived and I am most thankful no one was injured and the damages are much less severe then they could have been.

All About Tea!

Nov10

A few months back I took part in a candy swap with some online friends and in my package of treats I received a few David’s tea tea bags in Forever nut and I was hooked! Shortly after that fateful day I ventured to our local location to give the tea thing a fair go!

I ended up buying the tea starter kit, the fall flavors set and a large can of Forever nuts! I was in love. Since then I’ve found myself poping into the local locations any time I’m near one. Up until my David’s discovery I was pretty brand loyal to Tazo teas by Starbucks. Don’t get me wrong I still love my Passion tea but its no David’s!

I did a tea swap with a friend in Victoria and with another blogger and received even more flavors to try! Just when I think I’ve narrowed down my list of favorites I find a new to me flavor and fall in love all over again. I am weak!!

My weakness was evident Friday morning as I was up bright and early to order the 24 days of tea advent calendar on the website. My excitement turned to disappointment as I learned the website sold out within an hour of release! I guess Lululemon isn’t the only company that uses the scaracity model! BC folks had little hope of online purchase because of upload time. I now know how the Lulu girls out of my time zone feel every Monday night! Sadsies!!! I decided to take a chance and head to Guildford to try and get my hands on the elusive highly sought after tea advent calendar!

If you ever told me I’d be standing in line for tea I would have laughed but stand in line I did! I was actually first in line at 9:45 and by store opening at 10 am there was a substantial line! Kevin shook his head as us ~~hens~~ ladies discussed our favorite flavors! Mine are Guava cadabra, Birthday cake, Pink lemonade, Lime gelato, and of course Forever nuts in case you wondered!

I am looking forward to sharing my tea experiences with you thorough out December!!

As I have mentioned in the past I am working hard to learn to slow down, to embrace time, experiences, and life. While tea is just a simple beverage to most it stands as a reminder to me that good things take time. It reminds me to slow down, step back and wait to avoid getting burned, figuratively and literally.

Thankful Thursday ~ November 7

Nov7

I recently heard some good advice and it really struck a cord with me. There is no harder there is just hard! Stop trying to convey to people why your life is harder than theirs. It isn’t a contest! Stop living in a world where you are constantly comparing yourself to others. Just live and for the love of God don’t apologize to anyone for being true to yourself!

None of us can actually live in anyone else’s shoes so we can’t ever truly understand how things wear on anyone else. This doesn’t mean we can’t be empathetic and caring. What it does mean is that you have no right to tell someone your hard is harder then their hard!

At the same time realize that being empathetic means not comparing apples to oranges! Don’t tell someone who just had their leg amputated that you know how they feel because last summer you broke your leg! Don’t pretend to have all the answers to a situation you know nothing about.

Don’t throw stones in your house of glass because eventually you will find yourself standing in the cold all alone!

Don’t lie or twist a story to make yourself a hero , eventually your true colors will be glaringly obvious to everyone else even if you are still blind to them!

You maybe wondering what all of this has to do with Thankful Thursday! Well tonight I would like to tell you how thankful I am that I’ve learned to be true to myself.

I am thankful that I am not a door mat for others. I am thankful I have enough self worth to stand up for my beliefs and challenge those who try to make me feel like less of a person!

I am thankful I am who I am. I am unapologetic for being me! I love me and while I know I am not perfect I do not need to justify myself to anyone! I know I am far from perfect and that is okay because anyone who is real admits they aren’t perfect.

I am thankful that my self-worth is strong enough to weather the storms of life and that my character is strong enough to stand up for what is right and apologize to those I have harmed unnecessarily. I refuse to be a pawn in anyone else’s dirty games! I respect myself enough to walk away from toxic people and situations and not look back.

Live with purpose not with malice and remember others may cast stones about you but their words cannot take away your truths. Their opinions of you don’t make you, your opinions of you make you.

Buffalo Chicken “Cupcakes

Nov6

So after three nights of not making dinner, unless you count toast at midnight dinner! I finally felt well enough tonight to spend some time in the kitchen tonight!!

I have spent some time looking at recipes on Pinterest and a version of this dish caught my eye. I decided to go to work inventing my own recipe for Buffalo chicken cupcakes! Of course because the hubby doesn’t do spicy I did half the batch as BBQ chicken cupcakes.

These are super easy to make and I think they would make a great appetizer. I ate a couple for dinner with some veggies because I’m ~~awesome~~, no it’s cuz I’m awesome!

This recipe makes 12 “cupcakes” using a regular sized muffin tin. I did 6 buffalo and 6 BBQ by simply separating the chicken/veggie mix before adding the sauce.

Ingredients
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup real bacon bits *optional*
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup hot sauce or BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 can of refrigerated pizza dough
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Cooking spray

Method
Chop chicken, onions, pepper into small pieces and pan fry in butter, adding Italian seasoning and garlic halfway through cooking.

Preheat oven to 375

Spray muffin pan liberally with cooking spray.

Cut pizza dough into 12 equal portions and form each into a dough ball with your hands.
Use a roller to roll out each section of dough into a small circle and place into greased pan.

Once chicken/veggie mix is cooked toss with your choice of sauce. Divide mixture evenly between the 12 muffin tins.

Bake uncovered for 15 minutes and the remove from oven, quickly top with cheese and bake for another 5 minutes to melt cheese.

Remove from oven and remove from muffin tin pan by running a butter knife around the edge of each “cupcake” !

Enjoy

Thankful Thursday ~ October 31

Oct31

Happy Halloween Friends!! Hope everyone had a great night enjoying the spookiest of holidays!

My Thankful Thursday post will be quick and simple tonight as I’m exhausted!

I am thankful for my family. I spent tonight at my parents house handing out candy to all the little ghouls and goblins and enjoyed dinner with my parents. Don’t get me wrong we have our ups and downs like any family but things are usually pretty good.

My brother and I spend a lot of time together these days and it has reminded me blood is thicker then water!

Last weekend Kev and I ventured over to Nanaimo to visit with his family. I thoroughly enjoy being a McGavin. They are thoughtful and loving without being over bearing! And I happen to think I have the best mother and father in law a girl could ask for!

Since I haven’t been working my furry family has stuck close to my side. Tonight Muffin and Jasmine chilled on the couch right beside me and followed me to greet every trick or treater!!

I am a lucky girl.

Life With The McGavins

100% Not Sugar Coated