clean tacos and a step back

This week was exhausting.  I painted a room black!  CRAZY!!  Torturous, but I'm loving how it turned out.  I'll share pics later when it's all put together.  So with that fun project and life in general I wish I could say I threw together several healthy meals for my family, but it just didn't happen.  I did however see this recipe on Beautifully Rooted.  It turned out to be a great thing to throw in the crock pot and then eat quick before we were out the door for soccer.

It's called Easy, Fresh and Clean TACOS!!

You combine chicken, garlic salt, sliced onion, frozen corn, can of diced or stewed tomatoes and taco seasoning all in a crock pot and let it cook 8 hours on low, or 4-5 hours on high.  Shred and then just pile the meat on some corn tortillas.  Add some cheese, cilantro, light sour cream and there you have it...a really easy and healthy meal.  FAST.

Before I announce the winner of the Beautiful Soul piece I just wanted to let you girls know I'm taking a little break.  I've been going through the motions lately.  I'm in a burnout rut and I've felt for a long time that I need to step back a bit.  I have a tendency to ignore that voice and keep on going because blogging is my favorite thing, but I need to be obedient.   


So for the next few weeks I'm going to turn off my computer...EKKK!  I'm going to take walks.  I'm going to jump on a plane, and fly several thousand miles away with my family, and do nothing but take pics and lay in the sun!!!!  And when I get back hopefully the creative bug will bite, and I'll get some things added to my Etsy store that I've had on my heart for awhile.  It should be good.  Really really good.  I'll miss you something awful.  I know I'll go through withdrawal from hearing from you...but I'll be back;)

The Winner of the give-away is:

Tracy from Loving Pretty Things

So here's where you grab my button, link up and share what you've been feeding your family!!  Thanks girls.  Keep taking pictures of your meals.  You'll need some recipes to share when I get back;)

Have a blessed day.

530.  a chance to regroup

531.  soccer season begins

532.  quiet time

533.  rediscovery

534.  vacation with my sweet peeps

shifting focus

I had a dream last night that I was in Paris with my mom and dad.  We were in the coolest store ever. When I got outside I noticed the Eiffel tower, and I went to reach in my purse to pull out my camera and I didn't have my purse.  I ran back into the uber crowded store and frantically looked everywhere for it without any luck.  I woke myself up crying.


My camera is by far my favorite earthly possession.  It's an extension of me.  It gives me the chance to timeline my life.  It captures, documents and tells our story.  I'll let you into a little secret...I actually like taking pictures more than I like painting.  I know!  Crazy!!

A few weeks ago I dropped my favorite lens.  I quickly swooped it up and put it on my camera to see if it was okay.  It took me a bit to get it on.  I had to kind of force it on.  Once it was on it worked.  Yay!  Fast forward a couple of days to when I tried to remove it...uh not happening:( My camera is now officially a fixed 50mm!  Dangit!!!  To have it fixed will ultimately be expensive and I'll be without my baby for 4-6 weeks.

In the scheme of things that's not a huge deal.  At least it's my cheapest lens...my favorite lens.  It could stay on forever and I would still take lovely photos, but I'm bummed.  Before I dropped my lens I was struggling with lens envy.  I had my eye on a new one, a very expensive, completely unnecessary lens that in my blurry eyed lens lust would have given me the perfect shots. 


I'm convinced God works in mysterious ways. Not sure if He allowed me to drop my lens to teach me a lesson, but it definitely did. Amazing how I no longer think about that shiny new lens. I'm just grateful to have a camera that works. I'm content with my fixed 50 mm shots. Something in me shifted to gratitude instead, and that's a very cool thing to have in focus. 

Have a blessed day.

525.  eyes being opened

526.  fresh paint

527.  antiquing with my joannie

528.  dairy queen dipped cone

529.  recognizing that i have more than enough

secret garden

Hello my sweet friends.  It seems this last week that every living thing in nature has finally awakened.  The birds are full of song.  The little buds have burst forth on most of the trees, and they are filled with blossoms, and now the leaves are starting to unfurl.  It's breathtaking.  Nature seems to be showing off and I'm it's biggest fan... practically clapping my hands with delight!

I was watching an episode recently of Yard Crashers on HGTV.  Have you seen that show?  Ahmed Hassan...master landscaper person, goes to various home improvement stores and ambushes people.  What I wouldn't give to be in one of those Lowe's or Home Improvement stores when he strolls up with the cameras and crew.  Seriously if you happen to work for the show and know where he'll be next let me know...wink, wink;)  My yard would be perfect for your show.  It would be like hitting the landscape lottery.  If you saw my backyard you would understand my excitement. 

Nice green propane lid.

Oh wait you CAN see my backyard!  Here it is in all it's glory...ha!  One giant mudpit.  We have someday dreams of a patio, curvy edges, firepit...GREEN grass!  It will happen, but for now we are in waiting.  It takes some major moolah and/or know how to pull of a beautiful yard.  Unfortunately we don't have either right now, BUT we can dream and who knows maybe Ahmed could help a girl out;)

Speaking of dreaming.  Remember my sweet new friend Tammy??  THIS is her backyard!  Uh I think if I lived here I'd never go inside.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Her honey is all about gardening.  That's his passion and it showed.

She was so sweet to take me on a little yard tour.  We talked veggies.  We talked herbs.

I took pictures of every little thing.  Cause that's what I do.  The sky was so pretty through the blooms.

They had a sweet little path that led to this...

enchanted area.

They had sweet little flowers here

and there.

Nothing really speaks to me or makes me see God's beauty more than nature.   It's His gift to us.  Too bad the land has to be toiled!  Wouldn't it be great to just walk outside and throw some seeds into the air and magically have yourself a secret garden??  Dang that Adam and Eve!  They really messed it up for the rest of us;)  

Here's to a bright new week ahead.  I'm curious do you have a secret garden??

Have a blessed day.

**OH and it's not too late to link up to last Friday's post. One linked reader will win my beautiful soul giveaway. If for some reason the linky thing is not working, just link to your post in a comment, or give the recipe. 

520.  buds and blooms

521.  the promise of a new season

522.  breakfast today with my sugar sistas

523.  making it to 5,000 meters rowing

524.  big chick's first slumber party

the smoothie that rocks my world...and a GIVE-AWAY!

Good morning friends.  We finally made it to Friday!  I'm going to share one of my favorite recipes with you this morning.  I kind of made it up myself or tweaked it from various sources.  It's my mango smoothie.  It's also a really great snack for your kiddos when they get home from school.  It's the perfect blend of healthy and yummy:)



When I'm on the wagon and doing really good, it's usually because I started out the day drinking this!  Not having bread in the morning somehow wires me to watch carbs the rest of the day.  If I eat toast, or waffles or whatever then that's all I crave.  Weird.  For instance ya'll know I'm pmsing.  Yesterday I had 2 pieces of toast for breakfast, a package of Ritz crackers for lunch...with swiss cheese and then before dinner I ate 3 scones!  Oh yeah and before bed I made more toast!  What in the WORLD??  Anyway that no bread thing isn't working for me as of late. 

When I make my smoothie I load up the blender with tons of spinach...or a mixture of kale and spinach.  We are talking two giant handfuls.  I add approximately 1 cup of water, or you could add milk or a little orange juice if you wanted.  Then add one scoop of protein whey powder...or  half a scoop if you are watching calories.  For me this step is super important because the protein keeps me from getting hungry in an hour.

I finish it off with one teaspoon of local honey, a few chunks of mango (but you can use any fruit) and two heaping spoonfuls of Greek yogurt.  Again the Greek yogurt adds protein!  Mix until smooth and creamy.  SO GOOD!  I also make variations of this with peanut butter, and bananas or raspberries.  You really can't go wrong.  If you know of a great green drink make sure to share your recipe with us.

I'm attempting to grow the Feed my Family Friday posts.  I think alot of you lurk on Fridays;)  Recipe posts tend to be a little boring in my book, but it's keeping me accountable with my goals for the year of feeding my sweet family.  AND according to my linky page views the links are receiving between 6,000-7,500 hits.  Who knew?  That's so that's amazing!  So link up friends:)


Okay so this week I'm offering a smaller version of my beautiful soul to one of my linked up readers.  Don't worry if you don't have a blog, you can still be thrown in the pot if you leave a recipe in the comment section.  So grab my button pretty please and link to your recipe post...not to your blog url.  I'll leave the linky thing open until next Friday and announce the winner then.  Can't wait to see what you've been feeding your families.







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Have a blessed weekend.

514.  sweet mango...makes me feel like i'm in hawaii

515.  a new playlist

516.  the hunger games movie comes out!

517.  second chances

518.  phone calls with long distance friends...brings me out of the pit
519.  happy little songbirds