the Party!

 I had such fun with our zoom party on Friday night. 

It was my first time making this Brownie Recipe and it was so good! The butterscotch sauce- yum!

 

This party will be open until FRIDAY 1/29 -> www.pamperedchef.com/party/amylaforte0122

Customer Appreciation Party!

 

Pampered Chef has this great new party format where everyone in the party gets to share in the savings!  I am giving it a try as a Customer Appreciation Party starting tomorrow.  The party is open for 8 days at which point your final discount will be applied depending on party sales.  I will be doing a zoom cooking demo or two.  One tomorrow night at 7:30 pm making Butterscotch Pecan Brownies and Vanilla Ice Cream.

I did a live video the other night ~ Baked Ziti

It was pretty tasty.

Tonight's dinner is in the slow cooker- making a variation on Potato Cauliflower Soup in the current Season's Best Recipe Collection.  If time allows I hope to do a video tonight finishing it up.

This month's specials....

What's cooking in your kitchen today?  

See you soon!

today...

I'm not sure how I feel today. It's a complicated day and I have a lot of conflicting and complicated emotions.

I want to record somethings here for history and my memory.  

 

This morning was incredibly snowy- this picture accurately describes my feelings about it.  It felt like it was coming down as fast as I could brush it off my car.

I made it to work in one piece.  Thankfully that Mikayla has been safe too, driving around on treacherous snowy roads.

I feel icky and headachy.  I can not wait to be home; warm and cozy.

I'm completely preoccupied with the Presidential Inauguration.  I have spent too much time scrolling social media as well as news sites, etc...

I am praying for our wonderful country today. I know a whole lot of people are elated/relieved/ecstatic and a whole lot of people are sad/scared/frustrated.  Honestly- I'm somewhere in between...

Please be kind to your fellow Americans today no matter which side you are on. Change and compassion starts with you- no matter who is sitting in the White House.  

I saw a hashtag on instagram saying #makehumanitygreatagain (in conjunction with the inauguration) which really rubbed me the wrong way. The new President/Vice President today in no way makes humanity great again- that's up to you. To me. To each of Us.

I wish I could join in with the feelings of hope and over all jubilation that we are on the cusp of something great.  I do think it's wonderful and amazing for a woman to be voted into this office.

But my heart feels confused and sad and still a bit afraid.  I don't know what the truth is but I sincerely hope these people have the best for America at heart.

I am sad about the way the whole election went down and the childishness that was displayed on both sides.  I am praying that our leaders wake up and truly work together and compromise for the good of America.

I honestly feel that as hated and despised as he is/was as President that Donald Trump wanted the best.  I feel as President he deserved more respect than he received. I think he did good things too. I think is crass and cocky and arrogant.  I'm far from being a huge fan. I never ever in a million years thought he would be the President. But he was. I think being the President of the United States is an incredibly hard job. I could be wrong but it feels like a lot of people hated him on principal. Just because. I honestly wish I could hear his side of the story too. That's all.  As part of my Presidents Project- they are of course on my list- I just hope I can find something that will speak the truth, not overly slanted one way or the other. Maybe they'll write a memoir in the years to come...  I certainly enjoyed listening to Michelle Obama's book, and I was not an Obama fan- now am looking forward to reading President Obama's book as well. 

I saw the below on facebook and my heart echoes these thoughts as well.

I will be praying for President Biden and Vice President Harris. For Congress. I will be praying for our country as a whole, that people can take off the blinders of hate and bitterness and anger, that we can look for the good and the best in everyone.

I think this picture is really beautiful and it really makes me want to be hopefully and believe in the best.

God. Bless. America.

just some things...

 This weekend winter showed up- thankfully though the roads have been pretty ok (so far) even with the arrival of the snow. 

The below picture was taken this morning 1/18/21 outside of work. It looks very January to me.

I was very anxious and disheartened to wake up and see so much snow falling on Saturday morning.  Mikayla and I planned to drive to Houghton and move her into her new apartment for the semester. (How is my baby girl now living in an apartment???)  

However, the snow tapered off and by the time we left mid day, the roads were just wet, and clean and clear the whole way to Houghton.  Praising Jesus for that the whole way!

We had to carry all her things around to the back of the house, to the basement apartment, down this little stairway on the hillside. Also thankful there was no snow on the ground for this!

I listened to Michelle Obama's book the whole way.  I have to confess I am enjoying it more than I thought I would. I really enjoyed this look into her life- it helped to see her and also President Obama as real people.  I think one huge problem these days is we don't see people- especially famous people as people.  Maybe even if we don't agree with them in some ways we can acknowledge they are human beings- doing the best they can.

Some other things from this past week-

I made some yummy French Onion Soup from the Super Simple Cookbook. I'm making an effort again to cook more from my extensive cookbook collection.

from my devo's this week...

My morning workout buddy... and by workout I mostly mean- being in my way and licking my face-buddy.

"I'm fine, yeah, I'm fine, oh, I'm fine, hey, I'm fine"

I feel like this has become my theme song in recent weeks...

Life has just felt so hard... I feel confused, frustrated and discouraged.

Yet, I feel guilty for feeling this way. I don't have it so bad.  My life is pretty good over all.  So why do I feel this way. Like I am failing in every aspect of my life, as a wife, as a mom...

One thing from Sunday's service and Home Church that keeps sticking with me is- What VOICE am I listening to?  There are so many out there yelling for your attention. Work stuff, kid stuff, marriage stuff, political turmoil and civil unrest, media, my own inner doubts... all the coulds and shoulds...

So I'm working to listen to the "good" voices- reading my Bible, praying, listening to KLOVE.

Things that made me feel happy this week or so-

• date night with Rhett <3
• texts with my sister
• good chat with Mom and Dad when I stopped in for a treadmill run
• seeing this
  
  
  

“I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?" 

"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment...” 

― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

2020 reading wrap-up

 

I really like seeing all the covers of the books I read last year! 

Amy's 2020 book montage

Amy's favorite books »

Here are my 2020 reading goals...  Let's see how I did

• Keep reading books that stretch/grow my point of view- I think so- something I want to be more mindful of in 2021
• Read more of the books I own- I read 24 books I own- almost 23% and up from 12 books (and 12.5%) in 2019 from but I think I also purchased more books than in the previous year so...
• Read a few more classics- Anna Karenina is top of my list this year- still working on Anna K
• Keep a reading journal- review more of my books here. The blog ended up being my reading journal. I'm not sure I'm ok with that... still deciding on a handwritten one of some form or maybe printing out my book entries and keeping them in a binder. I did print my spreadsheet to put in my reading binder.  I think I did successfully review my books every month in 2020
• Be more intentional about the books I pick up, read things that make me a better person- sometimes- sometimes it was just an escape, others I felt like maybe I was reading just for the sake of reading and upping my monthly count.
• I set my goal on goodreads at 50, sometimes that feels like a lot, sometimes not enough...but this year I want to be more about the experience and than just page count.- Well I ended up reading 105- we spent two weeks in actual quarantine when the Mister had COVID- so that pushed up my numbers a bit as I read A LOT in those 2 weeks.
  

49% of my books were on my kindle or eBooks

77% were from the library/prime borrow/hoopla vs 23% were from my own shelves

76% were fiction vs 24% non-fiction

51 kindle/Ebooks | 41 print | 13 audio

Favorite reads of 2020- in no particular order. I actually feel like my reading life in 2020 was just meh. Not a lot of crazy good stand out- change your life kinda reads.  Here are a few that stuck with me.

• The Last Flight by Julie Clark
• The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
• Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever by Gavin Edwards, Jeremy Arthur (Reading)
• The Bromance Series- by Lyssa Kay Adams, I read two this year Undercover Bromance and Crazy Stupid Bromance
• Sunrise at Normandy Series by Sarah Sundin- there were three- The Sea Before Us, The Sky Above Us, The Land Beneath Us

Reading goals for 2021

• I set my goal at 57 books for this year.  A pretty arbitrary number. I don't know- maybe page count would be a better way to go- maybe it doesn't matter at all as I am a pretty consistent reader these days.
• My first and biggest goal is to finish Anna Karenina - I'm enjoying the story and I think I just need to dive in and devote myself to it.  Otherwise it just sits on my nightstand- day after day. I am making progress.
• Be intentional in the books I pick.  Choose books that make me happy as well as stretch me as a human being; not necessarily in the same book.  But overall.