The Best of: Easter!

It is my Friday! For the first time in my six years of teaching... I get tomorrow off! Typically it is a bad weather make up day... and we have had to make that day up every single year. I am so thankful for a day off. I am going to spend it with my momma. :) 
So, today, is best of Easter edition! 
Peep Smores Not gonna lie. Just saw this on Pinterest yesterday and was like whaaaat? I don't like chocolate.. and I don't really like peeps.... but everyone else on the planet does!!! Want to be the coolest person at Easter?? Bring this!! Click here for the link to the recipe!

Green Bean Casserole Another favorite around my household.... both pre-marriage and post-marriage. Fun fact: most grocery stores now carry a gluten free cream of mushroom! However, on Easter.... I eat the real thing! :) There are an extreme amount of variations of this recipe.... but here are a couple of my favs! Play with how you like, but whatever you do... I have learned to double the recipe. I also love it just as much cold the next day... ohh yes! 
Pioneer Womans Recipe... you can never go wrong with that pionner lady. She is so good. I love the cayenne pepper in this recipe. Green beans with a small kick.. yum.

Southern Living Recipe from 2011... my favorite part of this recipe is a little bit of ranch dressing mix and fresh mushrooms. I love mushrooms. 

Campbell's Original Recipe.... of course I would not leave this out! It is just too classic. I love the soy sauce in this recipe.. and I always add a little cheese! 

Carrot Napkin Holders If your Easter is anything like ours... there's typically at least 20 people eating at Carole Ann's house. Therefore the classy silverware goes out the door and the plastic silverware is the way to go... Look at this adorable way to Easterize the silverware! Don't want to buy ribbon? Twine would look just as cute! Click here to see a quick tutorial!

Egg Cracked Painting Are your kids too cool for Easter Egg hunting? Check out this awesome idea! It could be post Easter Egg hunting in play clothes.... or get washable paint and I think it would be an adorable picture still in their Easter attire! The process is simple.. Fill eggs with paint, cover with tissue paper, throw at a canvas! I would enjoy it myself! Click here to see!

Easter is one of those days that just gets me... I think it's mostly Easter music. Singing about Christ dying for me and rising again always makes me emotional. Pair that with good food and family time. It's always a good day. What are your favorite Easter traditions?

Spring Time Centerpiece

Back in February, Shop Mama was put in charge of the women's table for the Duck Banquet again. She lets Sister Laura and I help... but she is the backbone of the table. We were gonna decorate the table by putting some of the jewelry on wine bottles. So Shop Mama forced me, held a gun to my head, put a funnel down my throat and made me drink wine. :) Shop Mama drank some wine too and painted her bottles with gold spray paint. I decided to spice mine up with some gold glitter, because glitter. The table turned out so beautiful and even better, we all won something off it! The bottles started just how all my other centerpieces started.. scrubbing the labels off with hot water and soap! I used washi tape and my official measurer, Duck Dude, to help me make sure they were uneven, but somewhat coordinated. I'm pretty sure that's what the official interior designers call it. 

Next was the glitter and mod-podge. If you're going to do this, you want the consistency to be like sand... it takes a lot more glitter than you think, so just keep adding some slowly until you get it to look thick. 

I only did one coat, but if you weren't satisfied when it dried you could absolutely do another! I peeled the washi tape off, and didn't mind the little imperfections that are only visible to me. Next, I went to hobby lobby in search of my favorite flower, a tulip. I wanted some pink, very spring color to put in my bottle and didn't like anything I found. My plans were to head to Michaels.... but the next day I walked into Sprouts and they had fresh, beautiful tulips on sale for $5.99.

I couldn't even wait for the tulips to open a little bit before I took a picture at the perfect dusk light. I smiled for days when I walked in and saw how gorgeous they looked on the table.

And now, I'm waiting for Sprouts to have a sale again, because nothing says Spring like fresh tulips!

Sloppy Joe Quesadillas

Y'all. This is the absolute, perfect quick night dinner recipe. Combine it with the comfort food taste of manwich, and it is going to be a good night. 
Sloppy Joes. If your mind does not go straight to the Mary Kate and Ashley movie, you probably did not grow up in my house. Ya know, It Takes Two made in 1995... where two lost long twins find each other and bring their parents back together? Also makes for a great Halloween outfit with a coworker... the only problem your students who were born in 2000 will not know who you are. 

 

Cool, Mollie. How does this apply to sloppy joes? Well, there's a scene where Alyssa (the rich twin) gets exposed to sloppy joes for the first time in her life. And her reaction is oscar worthy.

So, why not take all of that goodness and infuse it with my favorite Mexican food! Quesadillas! Sloppy Joe quesadillas! It is brilliant I tell you!!

 

You could definitely add in plenty of other ingredients... jalapenos, mushrooms, bell peppers... but it is also just as good like this! Enjoy!

I am Back!!

That's right! I am back!! I started making a list of "possible blogs" about two weeks ago and it just kept spiraling from there. I had all these pictures on my phone and my phone was running out of storage and I thought.... I should blog them. 

I loved my time away and regret nothing... not even a single letter... but I am ready to blog again. So here we are! It will basically be the same thing. A little bit of everything. Maybe some more recipes, some stories, a tiny bit of fashion talk, a place to hold my memories, and a place where I don't really have to have a reason to put gifs like this... other than the fact that it makes me laugh.

  If you choose to tag along again, you are so kind. Let's be honest, my musings have not gone anywhere. 
Also, an extremely HAPPY birthday to my Sister Laura Pocket!!!!!! She gets me... and she is someone I can 100% be myself around. My favorite thing she's ever said to me? It was the night we got engaged.. and it was pretty soon after we got off the boat... "I don't want to be your sister in law... I want to be your sister!" And she is definitely that! I love you Sister Laura!!! Ain't no better sister than a soul sister!! Happy Birthday!!!

 

A Story of Esther: Verse of 2016

Raise your hand if your jaw dropped when you saw I posted a blog. {insert emoji of girl raising her hand}
I'll make it worth your time, I promise. 2016!!! Hello!!! We are 21 days into January of 2016. Good news? I've only written 2015 once. 
January has been crazy. I am going to be an aunt!!! Sister Laura Pocket is having a baby on my favorite holiday! We had a party to find out it's a girl!! Bridesmaid Julie is having a baby next week - we celebrated her with a baby shower. We are smack dab in the middle of basketball season - games, tournaments, the whole shebang. Two of my favorites had their birthdays... and we're still celebrating. We have some new prayer requests that we've added to our list for family.. and for family friends. I have a new student teacher who joined me in my crazy classroom. And the best news of all is God is faithful through it all. 
Which is exactly why I thought it was a good time to check in and share the verse that we've picked to be our verse of 2016. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of picking the verse out with the help of my husband.. it's a tradition that I want to continue for, well... a long time. 
Here is the back story of our verse. It's about Esther. Esther was chosen to be Queen out of all the land; however, she never told the King that she was Jew. Mordecai, who raised Esther, became the target of a ill tempered court official named Haman. Haman decided instead of just getting rid of Mordecai, he would set forth a decree that all Jews be killed on the 13th day of the 12 month. When Mordecai heard this he went to Esther and told her she must reveal herself to the King and ask him to change the law. At this point of the story, Esther is terrified to reveal herself because it could mean death for herself. However, Mordecai's response to Esther is where we find our verse for 2016. Mordecai responds with this: 

"Esther 4:14 - Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created."

If you want to know how the story ends, it's probably exactly as you imagine. Esther reveals herself and Haman's true colors to the King and asks the King to spare the Jews lives. He grants her wish and Haman is impaled on a 75 ft pole. 

The importance to me is that Esther realized the situation she was in and even though her decision was not the easiest to make, she still made it. Sometimes God has bigger plans than we can imagine and maybe, just maybe... it's exactly what we are made for. 

Happy New Year everyone. 

2016 - Esther 4:14

2015 - 2 Timothy 1:9

2014 – Psalm 71:3

2013 – Hebrews 6:19

2012 – John 16:33

2011 – Hebrews 11:1

2010 – Joshua 1:9

2009 – Psalm 46:1