Currently #3

Before getting into today’s post I just want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts on Friday’s post. It means a bunch to me.

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Right now I am riding a holiday high. Even though I am up to my eyeballs in tests, reports and presentations (3 in one class for example), the thought of Thanksgiving being only just over one week away is keeping me going. Then after that there’s only one month until Christmas. CHRISTMAS.

Just the word evokes a smile and the image of a million twinkling bulbs on a tall green tree. You know that feeling, don’t you?

Well, right now I am kind of in a positive mood, very unusual for a Sunday night, so I decided to skip any serious posts for the moment and instead update you all on some of my favorite things currently. Edition #3.

Current Book: Bitter Kingdom. The third book in Rae Carson’s series that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I actually went to a book fair recently and got to meet her in person so that she could sign my copy!

Current Music: All things Christmas. All the time. Scotty McCreery’s album in particular though. He has such an amazing low voice.

Current Guilty Pleasure: Facebook and Blog stalking. So thrilling, I know.

Current Nail Color: Does orange and yellow count from where my squash stained them? 😉

Current Drink: Water from my Brita Pitcher. No nasty city water for me.

Current Food: Same old, same old.

Current TV Show: Arrow, and Nashville.

Current Wish List: So many things… Right now though I’ve been looking for some local doctors as I’m getting the courage to visit one again and see if a different perspective has any new insights.

Time travelling is NOT on my list of requirements though for potential picks…

Current Need: Thanksgiving break.

Current Triumph: Making a dent in my homework. I didn’t finish as much as I would have wished, but certainly more than I expected being that my weekend was full of tempting distractions.

Current Bane of my Existence: Teachers who think we only have one class.

Current Celebrity Crush: Leonardo DiCaprio will always remain #1 for me, however I should probably diversify some. I’m kind of crushing on Josh Hutcherson right now. Watching his interviews he just seems tp have his act together. Pretty refreshing.

Current Indulgence: Cinnamon. Ya. I bought some at the grocery store this week and kind of have been sprinkling insane amounts on my food. I probably should stop because my stomach doesn’t seem to be dealing well. It’s just so good though!

Current Blessing: My parents for giving the gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) nudges to do things that I know I need, but do not want, to do.

Current Slang: Oh goodness. Not really slang. Almost the opposite of slang in that it makes me sound like an old granny.

Current Outfit: Blue Adidas athletic pants and a Minions t-shirt. (Remind me to take a picture and show you!)

Current Excitement: Catching Fire this weekend with my best friend!

Current Mood: Worn out.

Current Link: Recipe Redux. Among many.

And today I’m linking up with Katie at Healthy Diva Eats for Marvelous in my Monday!

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Questions for you:

What have you been loving currently? Answer some (or all!) of the subjects above!

Are you part of Recipe Redux? Ready for Thursday?

Who is ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas?!

Paleo French Toast Sticks (WIAW)

It’s only 8:00pm and I already feel like taking a nice large nap. Preferably one that lasts throughout the night for eight blissful hours. Yes. That sounds good right now.

Before going to bed though I have a nice little list that I want to accomplish: Astronomy, send a few e-mails, hang up my laundry, start on a PowerPoint for class, and finish this blog post of course. I’ll probably get about half done. That’s alright with me though. Better than nothing.

Slowly but surely I am catching up on comments on my past posts, and trying to read the new posts in my Bloglovin. So if you receive a notification from months ago that will be why!

I’m also supposed to be catching up on all of my backlog of recipe waiting to be edited and shared. But then I make a new recipe that I get even more excited about and end up posting that one instead. *My bad…*

I should also note the reason that I have such a nice little to-do list that has been spanning a few days now. I’ve been reading. For the past two days I have spent basically every free moment reading The Crown of Embers, the sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns that I read back in November. Guys… It was so good! The ending was just a tad rushed, but even that is just a matter of opinion because the story line was basically stunning and now I want to be a queen with magical powers even more…

Ha. Yes. My impossible but ever so present daydreams of magical powers has not waned in the slightest since I first began my Harry Potter addiction (did I mention that I’m listening to part 3 of The Goblet of Fire right now on audiobook? I didn’t? How silly of me…). Really though, The Girl of Fire and Thorns is a great series, made only greater by the fact that I am going to be getting the third book this weekend.

Hmm… My mom is also under the impression that she is getting the third book this weekend as well too. I call first dibs. Obviously I win because I have documented proof 😉

Something else that I would totally call first dibs on? These french toast sticks. Because no one likes cold french toast. Although it would still be pretty darn delicious if you ask me.

Paleo French Toast Sticks

Wheat/Gluten/Grain-Free, Vegetarian, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Paleo/GAPS-Friendly, No Sugar Added

12 French Toast Sticks – 1 or 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 batch of my microwave paleo bread (shared below)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (or any other kind of milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• dash of salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees or a skillet to medium-high heat (whatever temperature you use to make pancakes).
2. Take the microwave paleo bread and divide each of the four pieces into three so that you have 12 bread sticks in total.
3. Next in a shallow bowl mix together the eggs, coconut milk, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.
4. Oil/spray the griddle to prevent sticking.
5. Then dip each stick into the egg mixture and place on the griddle. Repeat with the remaining sticks.
6. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until the egg is crisp and thoroughly cooked. Flip and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
7. Remove and serve with whatever additions you would like! I divided the french toast sticks to two plates and topped them with a sliced banana and warmed honey.

Microwave Coconut Flour Paleo Bread 

Wheat/Gluten/Grain-Free, Vegetarian, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Paleo/GAPS-Friendly, No Sugar Added

Makes 4 slices of bread – 2 servings

 Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• dash of salt
• 3 eggs
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Directions:

1. Oil/Spray a glass loaf pan about 9×5 in size.
2. Combine the dry ingredients first then add the wet and mix well.
3. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and spread smooth.
4. Cook in the microwave for approximately 6 minutes (check after 4 minutes to test). The bread is done when the center is no longer wet and springs back at the touch. Adjust as needed.
5. Let cool. Then take the bread and slice it carefully horizontally so that you have two thin, loaf-size pieces of bread. Next cut each piece in two. This will give you four sandwich-sized piece slices for sandwiches. You can eat it as is, toast in the the toaster or in a pan, make a sandwich out of it, or make the french toast recipe above!

So now it’s 9:00pm and I suppose I should get a start on that list now… Blog post… Check!

And as always is the case for Wednesdays, I’m linking up with Jenn at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday. Make sure to head over to the WIAW party to see all of the other bloggers who shared their eats for the day.

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Questions for you:

Do you ever “bake” in the microwave?

How do you feel about cooking foods in the microwave?

If you were eating french toast right now, what would you top it with?

What books have you read lately?

Have you ever met any famous authors?

I Just Remembered… (MIMM + WIR)

I just remembered that I have about one bazillion plus one pictures that I haven’t shared on here from my summer and back-to-school antics. Among these are the rest of my weekend trip in Michigan with my family, some pictures from a recent shopping excursion with my mom and her friend, as well as just some random these-don’t-belong-anywhere-else photos that I have no where else to put.

(Source)

Notice that none of these lay mention to my dorm room. That time will come eventually. I just need to clear out my computers from my internship and that will give me a ton of extra space.

Right, about that… It turns out that my school requires a username/password to access their internet, and the phone that I run through the internet is not setup to require a password. Ergo, I can’t do the internship any longer.

(Source)

I have two main thoughts on this:

1. Oh my gosh. Money!! I really needed that money. Like A LOT.**
2. This will free up a lot of time for studying and just doing whatever I please. Already in the two weeks since school starts without taking any calls (what I did for my internship for those that don’t know) I haven’t once felt like I had too much time on my hands. I also never feel rushed. So maybe it really is for the better.

** So that’s just me being melodramatic. I have enough money to cover my school bills in my bank account as of right now, and it won’t kill me to take out a loan. I know that there are people out there with actual money concerns and mine are not even near as dramatic as theirs.

Overall I think I am also a lot less stressed without the addition of work, but that’s both good and bad. Yes, I don’t want to be OVER-stressed; however it was good practice for the real world outside of college and having that constant commitment kept me on my toes.

I’m going to be taking back my computer and phone equipment in the next few weeks and hopefully get to chat and say goodbye to my intern coordinator. She was such a nice lady and always responded to all of my questions (which were quite numerous as you can imagine). This trip will also lend itself to a trip to Whole Foods and/or Trader Joes so if that happens there will definitely be more Pictorial Deposits in the near future 😉

That’s all in the future though. Let’s wrap up the past and get crack a’ lackin!

I’m linking up today with Katie at Healthy Diva Eats for MIMM and Meghan at Clean Eats Fast Feets for Week in Review.

I took a lot of self portraits at work.

Obviously.

But instead of being obnoxious and posting one every day… I decided to bombard you with them all at once.

It’s proof that I did not wear a t-shirt/jeans/shorts every single day. My parents will be so proud (if they read my blog 😉 ).

It seems that I have an affinity for long sleeves, stripes and plaid. Hmm. Go figure- I actually have a “style.”

Before I get too retrospective and lose everyone’s respect let’s move on. After all, this blog is not about fashion!

(Source)

Now here is Part 2 of my weekend with my family up in Michigan this past summer (sorry in advance for the inordinate amount of photos).

After going to Greenfield Village at the beginning of the day, we took a short break recouping during lunch and messing around on our respective technological devices. Then my dad got it in his head that it would be fun to walk around a nearby college campus. You can just imagine my brother’s groans in protest and my mother’s dubious looks (I probably complained too but must have just blocked that part out… 😉 ). Upon explaining that the campus was well-known for looking like the grounds of HOGWARTS though we were all on board!

Instead of driving I pulled the directions up on Map Quest and suggested that we walk since it was only about a mile away.

Once we got closer I became increasingly more excited because it really DID look like Hogwarts.

The weather was absolutely perfect!

I felt like I was a student at Hogwarts… Just waiting for Harry Potter to walk around the corner.

Way far in the distance you may be able to spot a person in a light-colored shirt. There were actually two kids getting there senior pictures taken that day on the campus grounds. I bet they turned out amazing!

My mom.

Thing #1

Thing #2 (I’m guessing they were supposed to be monks?)

Me in front of a “passageway.”

Whomping Willow anyone?!

There was a lot of construction going on while we were there, which I tried to avoid in all of my pictures because it just kind of ruined the mood.

Madison Street!

I’d highly recommend for all of you Harry Potter fans out there to visit the campus whenever you’re in town. It didn’t take very long to walk around but I would love to go back there some time and have a picnic, take some more pictures, and if classes were in session maybe even take a look inside!

Alright…. Now let’s skip forward a few weeks to first of the September when I went shopping with my mom and her friend.

As I’ve mentioned before, coming from a small town we don’t have many specialty stores around to shop at. That limits the variety of things that we can buy as far as clothes, food, etc. More importantly, for my mom at least, it really puts a damper on the school supplies that she can buy for her classroom. We used to have a really great teacher store around us but that closed over five years ago so now we have to trek over an hour away to get to the nearest one.

Some may have found it boring, but growing up a teacher’s daughter I’ve gotten accustomed to teacher stores, quick trips into town for last-minute supplies, and helping with back-to-school crafts (<< one of my favorite parts aside from helping her grade tests!).

I know that there a few teachers that also blog out there, so this is for you all. I guess if you really like shopping/books/stickers you’ll like all of the pictures too… 😉

You Know You are in a Teacher Store When…

There are bulletin boards in the bathroom.

There are aisles upon aisles of books.

And stickers…

I guess I should also specify that these stickers are AWESOME!

Look closer… That’s right! Scratch and sniff. Stickers scented with the best foods known to man: Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Pizza, Grape, Popcorn, Strawberry, Cola, Lemonade, Apple, Taco, Bubblegum and there was even MORE on the other side. Heaven.

I even came across these. I think it’s safe to say though that our homemade versions were just as good and much cheaper 🙂

Now to wrap up this post a little something to remember from a scientific genius who we have all learned from over the years:

Well said Einstein. Well said.

I think I will take his advice and catch up on my fairy tales with Once Upon a Time this week to prepare for the new season. Who’s with me?

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Questions for you:

Have you ever gone anywhere that has reminded you of the set of a movie?

What scent would you want your scratch and sniff stickers to be? Cookie dough or cupcake. Duh.

What shows are you excited for this Fall? Or sad to see leave from the Summer? Excited for Once Upon a Time (but I’m WAY behind on my episodes…) and sad to see Rookie Blue end.

Curious

Do you ever read something, whether it be a blog post, a newspaper article, a book or even just a sign, and begin to wonder… and wonder… and wonder… and wonder… And then you end up on an entirely different, albeit inspired, plane of thinking?

Some may call this an attention problem. I call it an imaginative, developed, and interactive mind.

Let’s go with a shorter description though, coined famous by Olivander from Harry Potter. “Curious.”

Here are a few completely unrelated, but definitely thought-provoking ideas that I’ve come across in the past week or so.

First and foremost, the concept that there are books out there that when paired together, rival the likes of peanut butter and jelly. The Barnes and Noble blog gave a list that I’ll admit I haven’t much of. The post did cause me to think about what books that I have read that I feel would pair well together though.

I think that The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Hunger Games would be interesting when read simultaneously. They both bring up the contrast between the more primal/natural method of surviving by hunting  compared to the world that we live in today where we take advantage of/have even distorted how we perceive food.

Two other books that come to mind with this metaphor are The BFG and The Little Prince. Both are books that I read when I was much younger, but they both are great in the fact that they explore out-of-the-box thinking and go farther than what’s perceived as possible.

From that group of thoughts came another. I’ve already shared my love of reading several times. I’ve loved reading ever since Elementary school when I read my first chapter book, Amelia Bedelia. Last Friday in the comments of my post a lot of us chatted about how we really enjoy rereading books. What I personally didn’t differentiate between though was what kind of books I tend to reread.

I guess what I’m getting at is that I mainly only reread books that I’ve acquired in the last 6 or so years. I haven’t reread any books that I read in my “younger days.” I probably would actually enjoy those books immensely. But I’m also scared that I won’t. What if I don’t like them and by rereading them I taint the memory of all of the books that I perceived as being wonderful during my childhood?

Specific books that comes to mind are The Magic Treehouse, Nancy Drew, The Mandie Series, and The Boxcar Children. I highly doubt that I will dislike them if I am actually to read any again. Still, there’s that lingering worry.

Which brings me to my final loose end of brain activity for tonight- Do you judge people based on reading? Not just what kinds of books they read, but also just on whether they do or don’t read?

I want to say that I don’t, but I’m pretty sure that I do judge people based on that factor of whether or not a person likes books. If I meet someone for the first time and I find out they don’t like to read, I kind of see that as a negative aspect or “weakness.” Sure, they can make it up by being a fan of any of a number of my other favorite obsessions; however I will always feel a special connection to fellow readers.

This post is not at all where I was expecting to go. Mostly I just rambled on about books. Which is just fine by me really.

RIght now I’m going to read another chapter or two of my current reading pleasure and then am off to sleep… Hopefully a dreamless sleep and not one full of faeries, goblins and shapeshifters (does anyone else dream of characters from their current book?).

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Oh man, I’m so sorry you had to read all of that. It was so boring that as I was adding pictures last night I fell asleep.

Okay, so it’s not THAT boring, as long as you like books.

One last thought to leave you with today. Please tell me you agree.