the unperfected perfectionist

Good Afternoon!   I hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend.  I had a very nice weekend.  Friday night, we met my sister, brother-in-law and nephew for dinner at one of our favorite Mexican food establishments.  It was a perfect way to enter into the weekend. After recently hearing how calorie laden Mexican food is, not to mention a single frozen margarita, I have decided that I must limit my all time favorite, to once a week. Sniff, sniff. But, it is so yummy!  It is not a wonder that my daughter is a Mexican food lover too, as I ate it regularly when I was pregnant with her.  I have a crazy weakness for chips and salsa!  Keep the focus, Jen.  This post is not about Mexican food. After dinner, our families each headed home and my sister picked me up for a trip to Meijer for some shopping for our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner.  She kept telling me that she had yet to go and did not, whatsoever, want to shop on Saturday.  I...

I am not sure about you but, my weekend seemed to come and go in a wink!  As a whole, it was a pretty good weekend too.  I was able to spend some time with my brother and catch up a bit.  We have been having some issues communicating with each other recently and neither one of us could seem to get through to the other.  I decided that I didn't want to continue on with us each being too stubborn to reach out and put whatever stupid things we weren't quite seeing eye to eye on, behind us.  As I have said a hundred times before... Life is too short. I made the right choice.  Everything is good now and back on the positive again.  He is the only brother that I have, I want to nurture the relationship, not let it crumble beneath me.  I love you, Michael. A few low points of the weekend were hearing the news of a runner in the Chicago Marathon  that died 500 yards before the finish line. I don't know this man at all but, in my eyes, I bel...

Can we really be welcoming in October later this week?  I am already missing the warmth and sunshine of summer but, will welcome some crisp cool temperatures.  With cooler temperatures, I usually have the urge to bake much more often.  As I have said numerous times, baking is good for my soul.  When it is cool and gloomy outside, chances are pretty good that you will find me baking something fresh to share with friends and family.  In fact, over the weekend, was my husband's birthday, so I baked his favorite, chocolate cake with chocolate glaze.  For him, the more chocolate, the better.   When I was done baking the birthday cake, yesterday, I cleaned up the kitchen and ran a few errands only to return home feeling like I wanted to do some more baking.  I came across this recipe last week and have been so anxious to try it.  The recipe was for snickerdoodle muffins.  I love snickerdoodle cookies so, I thought that the muffins sou...

Good evening!  I am here to post my apple creation for you as promised. I decided to make my Grandma's apple crisp recipe. My Grandma was an incredible cook and baker.  I will share more with you  later about this wonderful woman whom I feel so lucky to have loved, laughed with and I could go on and on but, that is for another post.  I told myself to stay focused as I wrote this evening for I am so very tired and would love to go to sleep but, I made a promise to whomever may be reading this and I plan to keep that promise.  :)  Back to the apple crisp... It went something like this... I even decided to share Grandma's recipe with you that I tweaked ever so slightly.    Emma couldn't stop saying how yummy it was.  I hope you enjoy! Goodnight. 

Happy Monday!  I hope that everyone was able to enjoy their weekend before today arrived and a new week is upon us again.  I had great hopes and ideas for starting something like "Motivational Monday" posts to share with you today.  Well, I am very much a planner and do not like when things stray off routine and my day goes a bit differently than originally planned.  This is something that I am trying to be a bit more relaxed about.  Anyway, this morning, I had to head to the local Meijer for some groceries and came home with not only lots of groceries, but also a headache.  Unfortunately, this happens more times than not.  I unloaded the groceries into the kitchen and my headache instantly got worse as I was trying to find places to put them and keep it in an organized and orderly fashion.  I moved into this house just over a month ago and the pantry and cupboards are feeling less than user friendly.  Enough of the explanation of my change...