Mother's Day Home Spa

     My poor mother. She has gotten neglected since the arrival of my first and only niece. Cast away like yesterday news... Well we are just going to have to make that up to her. After my sister took me to my first salon haircut I have been in love with the idea of spending a day at the spa.  But we broke....so.... Mothers day home spa????  It's how we show we care buy treating you with your own beauty products in your own home! But you know, that's just how AWESOME my mom is. She doesn't care. As long as we are there.

We started the day off with a walk, and a quick lunch before heading off to one non-home spay treat of the day.. our pedicure. Even we know our limits! This was my first ever pedicure, yes how can I have lived on this planet as a woman for 34 years without ever having one. Well, I am certainly a fan of them now. It was a little more pricey than I would have cared for at $35 each, but well worth the price for the service. Our salon had massage chairs. I was pretty much was sold there, but they also soaked, trimmed and paraffined my poor neglected feet AND gave us exfoliating leg rubs. Droooool....

              The Home Treatments

My mom has TONS of beauty treatments stashed in the bathroom, so we had no shortage of things to slather on our face and body, and I brought a few home made treatments for us to use. Up first was the face mask and hair treatments. We used a clay mask that I made at home and saturated our hair with a regular moisturizing conditioner that we capped with a plastic bag...fancy I know. We sat around talking while sipping on some low calorie cosmos's and nibbling  on some fresh fruit. 

                       Purfect Clay Face Mask for oily-normal skin

                                 1 cup hot water   
 1/2 cup UNSCENTED 100% natural  clay cat litter (unused of course!!!!)

                                  2-3 drops of your choice essential oil

Mix ingredients in blender and give a good whirl. The granules will not completely soften, but the blender will help. Strain mixture through a cheese cloth and store in a decorative jar. This was enough for all three of us and then some. To use, gently apply the "mud water"  to your face with fingertips. Some of the pieces that have not broken down will have settled to the bottom and may get on your face, its ok, just pick them off because they will fall off as the mask dries. Do not rub the mixture too aggressively on your face, the granules are to harsh. Leave on for 15-20 minutes and rinse with cool water. Apply a good moisturizer afterwards. 

There is one bathroom and three of us, so we had to get a cycle going for a quick shower and the sugar and spice body scrub made by yours truly. 

Sugar and Spice Body Scrub

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

Zest of one lime

1 tbsp dried rosemary

Mix ingredients and store in an airtight decorative jar. 

1 rec=1 person

After using scrub, rinse yourself AND the tub as to avoid slipping. 

 After our steamy showers, I handed out rounds of Cucumber water, a must have for any home spa... so easy and refreshing!

                                           Cucumber Spa Water 

Decorative Pitcher of water

1 small cucumber

Mint and lemon for garnish

Simply slice up 1 small ( or half of a regular sized) and add to 2 quarts of water. Give a little stir an let chill in the fridge for at least 10 minutes or do the night before.Garnish with mint and lemon when serving. There are many variations to this, you can add mint or lemon and many more, but I like this basic one.

Mom owns a paraffin wax machine that we used to soften up our hands to match our pretty feet. It was pretty nice to have. We played around with some polish and enjoyed some spring rolls with peanut sauce as our day came to an end. After sharing our makeup and getting dolled up we parted our separate ways to be wined and dined by our special men, because what's the use of looking fabulous if you don't go show it off!

Everything Cornbread

I was against it from the beginning, but does anyone listen to me? Nope. You wont eat it I said. Oh, but how we were going to eat this Dean's ranch dip. We were gonna eat them with vegetables too, NOT fatty ol' chips. And what happens. We ate a dollop WITH chips, and it was never heard from again.... until I was cleaning out the fridge today and noticed our practically full container of now out of date dip.

I went to chuck it, but then the cheapskate in me says go ahead, take a look. After thorough examinations, smell test and a taste check, I deemed this deans dip still edible and I took on the responsibility of finding this dip it's day in the sun.

After a little searching I saw some suggestions like thinning it out as a dressing, making into another dip, and some other things but to be honest I just have never been a fan of the Dean's Ranch. I guess I am just a french onion kinda girl. I ended up at the source, where a cornbread caught my eye. Now, I have made some FANTASTIC cornbread in my life using cottage cheese, so this seemed  feasible. I started out trying to follow the recipe, beating eggs and thawing broccoli, but my fridge cleaning adventure had left me a plethora of add ins.There's trashcan omelette's  and refrigerator soups...so why can't there be a leftovers cornbread?


This cornbread could be meal on it's own! It was very moist, I had to use a fork! And, I used all the dip and assorted misfit leftovers, making the possibilities endless.

My batch:
4 large eggs
 12 oz  thawed, well drained frozen broccoli lightly chopped ( just a little whirl in the food processor.)
1 roasted red pepper lightly chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup thawed, well drained frozen corn
1 cup deans ranch dip
handful of chopped fresh cilantro
handful of chopped banana peppers ( sadly we were out of jalapenos)
1/4 cup quesso shreds
1 8.5 oz package of cornbread mix
 1/4 cheddar shreds (reserve for topping)
chili powder for  garnish

Beat eggs lightly until yolks are broke. Add butter, dip, veggies and cheese and stir until well blended. Fold in cornbread mix and stir until there are no lumps. Pour into a well greased pan  bake 25 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven or until almost done in center. Top with cheese and garnish, and pop back in oven until cheese is melted. Allow to cool some before removing from pan, top with sour cream and hot sauce and chow down!

Us versus the rain

 My Birthday came and went with some festivities, but not much. I usually leave hibernation and oust myself back into my outdoor excursions around this time of year, but being under the weather and then actual weather not behaving like spring, we just sat at home. That must be why I got an itch that just would not stop me wanting to go to Dupont State Forest in North Carolina. I tried to make happen several times, but being that it is a hour and 15 minutes away, I had to really make a day of it. Then just like that it happened. We jumped in the car and started driving, watching the sky turn grayer and grayer...But it is NOT going to rain.

This was my second trip to Dupont forest, my first being a very hearty hike. I had no idea where exactly it was, as there are quite a few area's to hike from.  I gave it my best random finger pick and went with the "Hooker Fall's Parking Lot". Somehow, that's NOT where we ended up, but thankfully the trail heads and parking areas have very informative maps. Just as we pulled up our denial about the rain came to an end.

 Yes, I should have checked the weather. Then I would't have been shocked it rained with 70% chance of it. However, I seems that our random picking of trails could not have been better. Though they were not the cardio pumping trails that I yearned for, they were quite good for people who were trying to outsmart rain.  We headed up the trail for Hooker falls, short and sweet and the rain was only misting. When we got back to the trail head, we noticed the trail for Triple Falls. Somehow I convinced my beau to walk this one too, after all we drove across the state to see something... and this was the waterfall I had originally wanted to see, having just learned that morning that it and several area's had been used in the filming of the Hunger Games! 

We made the small hike to the amazing falls, and began taking our pictures. The water was becoming stronger, the sky grayer and the mist began to form into larger droplets, but did we take the cue to leave? Nope. Clicking away until a rumble finally got us scurrying. About ten minutes from the car, the storm released full force, soaking us just close enough to the car to taunt us. While it wasn't quite the scene out a romance movie, we shared our on moment of sloshing through mud and laughing hysterically.

     
After a soggy ride home, we rented Hunger Games to see the entire 10 seconds the waterfall was in the movie. I guess that was enough to make me a fan, not really liking it the first go around. I'm just glad that our adventure only including running from raindrops and not arrows!

Try again.

It seems as if I am always starting over on life.  But is this not the intentions of sunsets and sunrises, to let horrible days end and a chance for a great one to begin? The past few months I have been able to experience pregnancy, and the wishful dreaming of becoming a mother. Sadly, it was an experience that didn't come full circle.  I  felt sadness deeper than anything that has ever touched my heart . I have given myself some weeks now to cope, and I have. I am now ready to  begin the process of  fixing me.

I gained quite a few pounds from the combination of not working, some self pity eating and then becoming pregnant. I also ran out of unemployment benefits, which I was able to continue, but it surely put the scare in me that I have got to be 100% prepared for when I don't have any. Luckily, over the past few years, I have been chiseling away at the debt obtained from my frivolous youth, and I have only two debts to pay that would affect me negatively if the worse did happen. Not to forget that I have totally perfected my couponing skills. Oh yeah, I am hard core. I want to stock up like it's Armageddon.

It's been a process to even get out of the house. I had really bad fatigue while pregnant and I could never get anything done. I also regret conceiving in this shape, all future attempts will not be until I am considerably lighter. I have walked several times, sometimes it was so painful I couldn't make it down the street. This time last year I ran my first 10k. Now I can barley walk! I still waddle and look like I am intentionally sticking my tummy out  so I feel a little self conscious about it.. BUT... today I walked three miles!!! Yay! It took an hour...but still!

Oh I could wallow in sadness and cry why me, but I'm not. I have had enough life molding experiences to know that life is just a something we try to get through. Sometimes things go along fine, and we are lucky. Sometimes things don't work out, and there is nothing we can do about it but not let it break us. I wont. I will never let life break me, I will search for the positive and I will not let myself get like this again!

Scotch Eggs

Easter has always been pretty exciting in my family, especially since my sister and I share late March birthdays and usually lop everything into one celebration. We are eight years apart, but we both have close March birthdays, and this year not only was my darling niece getting old enough to make holidays magical again, my sis's birthday fell on Easter Sunday. 

I had planned on spectacularness.. but of course life just refuses to be perfectly planned out like we sketch it out on paper....and my poor niece was terribly sick. We THOUGHT it was a reaction to a shot she got the day before...but lucky us got to share in the upset tummies when our feel better kisses turned out to be contagious. 

So, we didn't get to do our first ever Easter egg dye and hunt, but it's ok. We ate, drank, and were oh so merry. It turned out to be a warm up for me next year, and while Easter Dinner will be spread out with visiting the family, I have secured my position as head Easter egg hunt coordinator for all future Easter Saturdays :)

 Months before I was even thinking Easter I came across a recipe for Scotch Eggs in a magazine. I knew right then and there that I wanted to make this for Easter.  I do not recall what magazine, but recipe was a featured recipe from AllRecipes.com. The recipe seemed simple, until I really got down to doing it.It was quite a pain in the butt, so upon unveiling them I warned that they were never going to be made again. I was rather unimpressed with them myself, mostly I feel like I picked boring sausage and substituted some things that may have led to lack of flavor. Everyone else seemed to love them, my beau especially loved the ones I deviled ( an Idea I saw while looking at recipes). We where not big fans of adding guacamole, as so possessed by an Easter idea from Wholly Guacamole. Blech.

So lessons learned. Next year will be better. Now I just have to come up with something delightful to make for Easter Egg Hunting, more kid friendly I think..and then I will over-plan the crap out of it.