Episode One

On today's edition of 'So I'm Dating a Hoarder' we're going to talk about our CD collection.

It's no surprise that Zeb likes to keep things. Everything. He's not really a hoarder, I use that term loosely here, but he does have an affinity for throwing nothing away. nothing.

That doodle that you mindlessly drew at work? He kept it.
An instrument neither of us can play? We have it.
A lamp that doesn't work? It's here.

I just went through four years of asking him to clean up the spare bedroom which consisted of a bed for guests and lots of boxes filled with things he couldn't throw away. However, upon going through the boxes, he realized a lot of it was just trash-old mail, random papers, etc. Some of it was worth keeping, I'll admit, and I did have fun the nights I went in to keep him company and we looked through some of his childhood memories. He couldn't part with everything though, and I'm not asking him to, but a box of old T-shirts and a pair of roller skates? I thought for sure we could let those go. nope. not yet.

The room looks 100 times better though. Cleaned up, organized, and a space for guests when they come over, not just a direct path from the door to the bed.

For some reason yesterday, I decided to go through the piles and piles of CDs we have, to try and organize them. It turned into quite a mess of purchased CDs with no cases, cases with no CDs and lots and lots of burned CDs-some with labels of the band and album, some labeled 'random' or 'mix' and some not labeled at all.

If it were up to me, we would get rid of the majority of them because I don't think either of us has touched them for four years, but Zeb is a keeper, so we will attempt to find a way to organize them.

I'm overwhelmed by the stacks and stacks of scratched up CDs, especially since I feel like CDs are a little obsolete anyways.

Do you have a CD collection? Have you touched it in the past year?

More Love Less Hate

Zeb and I decided to make a family resolution this year.

ie: he told me his resolution and I loved it and wanted it as my own.

More Love Less Hate.

We will try to have more love in life.

To me this means not getting mad over the silly things, like my phone not working or the person in front of me in the checkout taking too long. I can get pretty mad over the most trivial things sometimes, because I let myself get mad. I will try to have this happen less.

I also want to love more. I want to love Zeb more and my friends more and myself more.

It's Party Time in the City

I have never been called a party animal. ever. ever. ever.
I'm a low key kind of girl.
introverted.
a home body.

and then things like New Year's Eve happen and people talk about going to parties, getting drunk, dressing up....oh my!

and my perfect New Year's Eve is dinner and a movie with guy I like a lot, and that can pretty much sum up the perfect night for me the other 364 days of the year as well.

Most of the time I get my way.

This year, however, we're headed to a party.

I'm not looking forward to it at all.

Wish me luck.

and Happy New Year.

(and as hard as I tried to find a New Year's Eve pic from a past celebration to post, I couldn't find a thing. I suppose it's time to attend a party. harumph.)

Old Traditions

One thing that we have been doing for years, is Christmastime goal making.
It's different than a New Year's Resolution.

We just write down on slips of paper what we wish for ourselves in the next year.
It's a secret that's stuffed into the bottom of our stocking until the next Christmas.
It's never a big deal.
Sometimes I write 'floss more' or 'drink more water' or 'take Peanut on more walks'.

Most of the time, I forget what I've written until I unfold that tiny piece of paper Christmas morning.

Some of the time the goals are reached and sometimes they are not, but either way it's fun to see where I've come from and remember where I was in life the year before.

New Traditions

This year I wanted to focus on making new traditions for Christmas. We already had a few in place, but I thought I would also be the chef of Christmas Eve dinner this year and every year to come.

I had been encouraged to make a Short Rib Ragu recipe by a friend who had tried it and loved it.

The week of Christmas, I was beginning to get cold feet-doubting my ability to pull this off successfully. Upon voicing my concern to some very encouraging friends, I was gently pushed into this cooking experience.

"It's only sauce" I was told.

Also, I was told that making it in advance would only make it better, so I started this adventure on Wednesday. After 3 hours in the kitchen I still wasn't happy with the state of the ragu. I was supposed to have a sauce, not a meat soup. Consulting my cooking friends, I was encouraged to just cook it longer.

So cook it longer I did, and come Saturday I packed up my culinary masterpiece to take to Columbia and that evening we ate like kings and queens.

The recipe turned out so delicious and in true Cheryl fashion, I praised myself highly for this culinary feat.

It's Christmastime

Last night we got in the spirit of Christmas, first visiting Christmas in the Park which was a fun light display, but ended up paling in comparison to a Kansas City resident's very own display- The Babick House.

This display wasn't even fully lit, which made me sad inside (there were some technical difficulties), but I'm hoping his house is lit longer than just through Christmas because the small bit of it I saw blew my mind. This is not an exaggeration.

Each display is full of moving toys. His garage is converted, and his living room is on display as well. It's an amazing thing to witness.

Merry Christmas.

Homemade Dog Treats

I'm pretty into making things myself and not very interested in buying things I'm pretty sure I can make.
I have been known, on more than one occasion, to say, "I could make that".

and most of the time I do...most of the time.

This year I had the idea to make my dog friends some homemade treats.

I used this recipe:

Ingredients
1 Banana
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Oats
1/2 cup Apple Sauce
1 1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Mash banana with a fork until smooth.
3. In a large bowl mix all ingredients one at a time, kneading well after each addition.
4. Knead dough into ball and roll onto a floured surface 1/4 inch thick.
5. Cut with the cookie cutter of your choice.
6. Place on your prepared cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until edges browned. Cool and refrigerate.
Makes 4 to 5 dozen dog houses.(I used candy canes) 

My treats didn't turn out like crunchy dog biscuits, and I'm not sure if they were supposed to. They are, however, delicious and Peanut loved them so much I couldn't get a good picture of her eating one.

Have you ever tried making dog treats before?