Thursday Thoughts

Today I'm stealing a page from Steph for some Thursday Thoughts (now watch, she won't do that today). Update: she didn't.


I don't mean to complain about the rain when other parts of the country have it so much worse, at both ends of the spectrum. But enough already! Last weekend we had our own little Lake Carmack in our driveway.


And now, a moment about cat litter boxes. We have a closet under our stairs affectionately known as the Cat Closet where the litter box lives. There's a hole cut in the door for easy access. You'll notice I said litter box (singular) and you might be thinking "girl, don't you have three cats? And you only have ONE litter box." Why yes, yes I do.

We used to have multiple litter boxes in the closet but after we added a third cat we were having some litter box issues. Our friends Amy and Ray suggested going to Lowe's/Home Depot/pick-your-building-supply-store and getting a concrete mixing tub. Brilliant -- and cheap! And the cats love it.

On a side note, it never fails that as soon as we've scooped the box, Bella is right there to use it. We call her The Biscuit because she likes a clean bowl (how many of you know that reference?).

Yes, I totally took a picture of my cat using the litter box.

Last night my neighbor and friend Amy came over to help me with Project Mail Sort (to solve the problem I mentioned a couple weeks ago). With beer and wine and pizza in hand we tackled the disaster.

And now it looks like this:

Now I just have to keep up with the incoming mail and keep the piano clean. Thank you so much, Amy!



I know it's not the topic of the week anymore, but I'm going to talk about Caitlyn Jenner. And by "talk about" I mean borrow thoughts from other bloggers. First up, from my ten-years-younger twin, the aforementioned Steph. She wrote this a couple weeks ago:

"Is [Caitlyn Jenner] a hero in my life? No. Do I think she could be a hero to people struggling with a transgender identity issues? Absolutely. I wonder if the people who can't reconcile the idea of more than one type of hero in their minds are just intellectually incapable of doing so. Some people are heroes to many, and some people are heroes to specific groups of people, and more than one type of hero can co-exist in this universe. There are many ways to be heroic, courageous, and brave. One's life does not need to be in danger from outside forces or disease to be any of those things. I count suffragettes among my heroes and I'm pretty sure many people who were never denied the right to vote wouldn't. But if you told me they were not heroes I'd tell you to go fuck yourself because to me, they are. Just because someone is not a hero to you doesn't mean they can't be a hero to someone else. Heroes are personal. It is not for us to decide  who holds the title of hero for someone else. Live and let live."

Then I read this post from a blog that's not on my reading list, but a friend shared it on Facebook and I loved it. The writer is a woman who identifies as (the new buzz phrase) a born-again Christian who says "I choose love. I choose encouragement. I choose edification. I choose support."

To put my own feelings out there, I just don't understand all the negative energy spent by people who don't agree with Caitlyn's decision to live a life that she has suppressed since childhood. There was a petition (which accumulated more than 3,000 signatures) to have Bruce Jenner's 1976 decathlon gold medal stripped. Seriously? How ridiculous.

Friday Frivolity

New year, new planner that I won't use. I have eternal optimism that I'll get my act together and actually use a planner for more than a week.

This year I went with the blogger-endorsed Erin Condren planner.

Look how cute it is!

Do y'all have the ION Television channel? It's my late-at-night-can't-sleep-due-to-snoring-husband-and/or-crowding-cats channel. They show reruns of some of my favorite crime dramas and they just started Cold Case from the beginning. I loved Lilly Rush and her band of homicide detectives solving open cases - some as old as 1919, some more recent. I miss that show.

I didn't share this next bit of news in my year-end post because I wasn't sure if it was public yet, but now it is and I can announce that our niece Jackie got engaged on Christmas! For those who aren't on my personal Facebook page, here's the family photo, including her fiancé Dameon (far left).

I haven't posted a karaoke playlist in a while, but rest assured, I'm still singing! Here's what I sang Tuesday night.






Finally, Happy Birthday to my friend Amy. Aaron has three best friends from high school and fortunately all the wives are friends as well. I'm so happy that Amy and Mike now live here in Columbus (a mere 10-minute walk away)!

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Let's play catch up

Here's what's been going on the last week:

Sunday we had a family reunion on Aaron's side. We were at his sister Cynthia's house, where they have a pond with zipline, a pavilion with picnic tables and a firepit, and lots of land.

Taken from the deck of the house

The kids were just the best. I love it when kids who may not have ever met each other become besties in about 2 minutes. They did a scavenger hunt before the lure of the pond hooked them for the rest of the day.

All girls, except for little Cohen, being held by our niece Lauren

Kate, Julia and Lauren

Zip line!

As you probably know, we have a community garden next to our house. This is our last year for that and there will be houses there soon (living through construction should be fun). Anyway, one of our neighbors planted a sunflower this year and it finally bloomed!

I took this from our second floor window. I love that it
faces the house so I see it whenever I walk past and
it makes me smile.

I started the longer-than-I-want-it-to-be process of reorganizing/purging/decluttering the bathroom shelves. I need some suggestions on organizing. I don't like the wicker baskets that are so big and I can't see anything in there and definitely can't find anything. Here's the before pic:

Here's the recipe for the Blackberry Lemon Trifle I made last week. I got the recipe from The Fake Gourmet.

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container whipped topping
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/4 cup water
6 cups fresh blackberries, washed (or frozen, thawed)
1 jar (10 oz) blackberry jam
1 pound cake, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Combine cream cheese and lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Add condensed milk and mix again.
Fold in whipped topping. Set aside.

Combine lemonade and water.

Line the bottom of a trifle bowl (or whatever bowl you want to use) with pound cake. Brush on the lemonade mixture (I spooned it on) and if you're patient, wait a few minutes for it to soak in.

Spoon blackberry jam over the pound cake.

Spread whipped topping mixture over the jam layer, then put blackberries over the whipped topping layer.

Repeat.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

My bowl was way too big! But this is delicious and easy!

Have a great weekend! I know I will because I have my niece Jackie visiting. Look how gorgeous she is!

The Great Jewelry Organization Project

I mentioned on Monday that last weekend Aaron and I tackled my jewelry. Let me show you some before pictures (which are actually from a year ago but still quite accurate).

1 - Longer hanging necklaces in the bathroom window.
2 - Various items in the window of the laundry closet.
3 - A fantastic jewelry organizer drawer in the walk-in closet (elfa from The Container Store), but you can hardly see it because I just threw shit all over.


So Aaron started grouping all the jewelry and had me decide what to keep and what to toss. At one point we got out this jewelry box and I pointed out that he had given it to me probably 25 years ago for Christmas.

His response: “Pitch it. I clearly underestimated your jewelry obsession.”

Some in-process photos, with our helper Bella.

The idea was to get all the jewelry in one place. This involved buying another organizer drawer, which Bella's sitting in the above photo. We didn't quite accomplish the "all in one place" goal because I also have a collection of small jewelry boxes, some vintage that belonged to relatives, some gifts from various parts of the world. We kept these on the shelves in our bedroom but they currently hold special, non-every-day pieces.

And here's the finished product. The lower right picture gives you the full effect (and yes, Aaron folded my jeans which previously were ... not very neatly stacked).

I have not been compensated in any way for this, but I highly recommend The Container Store. All of our closets are full of elfa products. In fact, when we were building our house we bought most of the shelving in January because of the elfa sale, even though we didn't move in until September. The elfa sale is still going on until February 11 - 30% off!

Have a great weekend and stay warm and safe!

Polenta Casserole Recipe, and Makeup Brush Storage Update

A couple weeks ago I posted this picture and had some requests for the recipe. Since I clearly didn't make it (Aaron did) I had to find said recipe, but here it is at last.

Rustic Sausage and Spinach Polenta Casserole

POLENTA
5 1/2 c water
1 1/2 c instant polenta (They're very specific about using INSTANT polenta.)
3 oz grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 medium garlic clove, minced
Salt and pepper

TOPPING
1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 lb Italian sausage, removed from casing
6 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
8 oz spinach, chopped coarse
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
2 oz grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs minced fresh parsley leaves

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees with oven rack in middle position
2. For the Polenta: Combine the water, polenta and 1 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl, cover and microwave on high power until most of the water is absorbed, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir thoroughly, then continue to microwave, uncovered, until creamy and fully cooked, 1 to 3 minutes longer. Stir in Parmesan, butter, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm, set aside.
3. For the Topping: Heat the oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, breaking the meat into large chunks with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook another 30 seconds.
4. Add the tomatoes with juice, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Stir in the spinach a handful at a time and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Smooth the cooked polenta evenly into a 13 x 9 baking dish. Spoon the sausage mixture on top and sprinkle with Parmesan.
6. Bake until polenta is heated through and cheese is melted and just beginning to brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with parsley and serve.

This recipe came from The Best One-Dish Suppers by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine. We've been subscribing to Cook's Illustrated for years and Aaron gets a lot of recipes from them. This book has a lot of great recipes (the chicken pot pie on the cover is delicious!) and you can get it from Amazon.

Click on picture to go to Amazon

Last week I posted step one of getting myself organized beginning with the bathroom drawer. I mentioned that I still wanted to do something with my makeup brushes and Steph at Life According to Steph suggested doing something that's been all over Pinterest. Well, I'm not as prolific with my Pinterest account as some of my friends so I didn't even know what she meant. So I did a search and found this:

From Pinterest via The Home Daybook

Wouldn't you know, I happened to have a rectangular vase and decorative stones and they were doing NOTHING. We bought the vase at Ikea because it was cool but we've never really put anything in it. We do use the stones if we have fresh flowers, but that doesn't happen all that often either, mostly because our cats like to snack on fresh flowers.

So here's the final result:

My vase is a lot bigger than the ones I saw on Pinterest, but I also have this handy dandy windowsill that fit perfectly so I'm not taking up tons of counter space.

There you have it. I actually did a DIY project! Yeah, yeah, I know it's not much, but for me it's huge.

Stay Tuned,

The Gila

Linking up with Helene and Emily:

Organizing My Life (starting with a drawer)

Here's the thing: I'm not a neat person. I never have been. Just ask any of my college roommates, or my mom, or my husband. I'm certainly not in any danger of being on Hoarders, but in terms of keeping things tidy, I'm a mess. My desk is a disaster, and my closet often looks like a tornado went through it.

This is a birthday card my parents gave me years ago (I can't remember which birthday it was, but I was definitely an adult). The schoolteacher-perfect cursive writing is my mom's; the printed, less-perfect writing is my dad's:

I love the idea of being organized and I even enjoy the implementation of organization. It's the maintenance that trips me up. Every so often -- OK, not that often -- I get inspired and do an overhaul of my "stuff." I'm now attempting that again, but it's a slow process.

First up: the bathroom drawer.

I can't believe I'm posting this for anyone to see, but there it is. Total mess.

So I went to The Container Store and got a couple drawer organizers. Note that Aaron's is much smaller than mine. I couldn't fit everything, which led Aaron to ask "where are you going to put all the other stuff?" I said, "one step at a time, dude." Because as Demi Moore said to Rob Lowe in About Last Night, "a whole drawer? ... That's a big step." Yes, yes it is.

Here's the after shot:

It still needs some fine-tuning and I may go back to the mecca that is The Container Store and get a separate small tray for my makeup brushes so I can fit a little more stuff in there.

***UPDATE on the makeup brushes here.

Coming soon: jewelry organization (ugh). ***And apparently "soon" means at least 4 months.

Stay Tuned,

The Gila

Linking up with Helene, Emily and Sarah for Tell Me About It Tuesday