Being at rest

As the move is even closer, I find that I am not doing a good job of taking time out to relax. Even when I sit down to watch my favorite shows I have a book out, my laptop, my dog, probably food. There are so many things all over me that I can't actually get anything done ever! I also feel guilty about not doing any of those things or not being able to finish any of them or do them well. So I am trying to start a new habit of being still during the things I enjoy: watch the tv show without having to do something else or maybe go to dinner and leave the phone in the car.

So I thought I would give you a list of 5 ways that I am going to work on enjoying the moment. 

1- Stop trying to do everything at the same time. Do one thing at a time and do each thing well before moving on to the next task. 

2- Take time for me. Spend time on a craft project, reading a book, blogging, the dog park with Lily, or whatever makes me happy. 

3- Let the pressure go. I know it sounds way to much like Elsa, but everything will get into a box at the end of the day so I don't need to make anyone else happy with my packing arrangement. 

4- Stick to my priorities. I am not doing a great job of turning down events that I don't want to attend and I am struggling to make time for the events that I want to attend because I feel bad about everything else. 

5- Get enough sleep. I've started staying up late and trying to get up early. In most of those cases I was watching junk TV?!? So I would like to shoot for 7 full hours in the bed without the lights or phone on. I gotta be specific. 

How do you take time for yourself? Is it by being away or being with people? 

Developing the perfect Biscuit recipe!

A few weeks ago I checked Southern Biscuits out from the public library, I saw it on some book email and was super interested. It was a great read about the history of biscuits and how to make them. I have tried to make biscuits over and over again and I usually get flat rocks... so I was intrigued about this making something different.

This book helped immensely, I got fluffy biscuits!!! It turns out that I was way over handling my dough and when that happens you get rocks. It was interesting to read about the methods and why you want to just kinda pull everything together and then let it rest. Mine are quite as big as they ones on the book cover but they are so much better than before.

All-purpose flour with baking powder

Self-rising flour

I tried two different recipes: Basic Southern Biscuits and Baking Powder Biscuits. They main/only difference is the flour: self-rising vs. flour with baking powder. I found they are about the same, some complain about the taste of the baking powder. I am so excited to finally have a biscuit recipe that I can whip up easily. I did use real buttermilk so that I don't tend to have but it was ok. Also, I just popped the uncooked biscuits in the freezer and then popped them on a baking sheet when I wanted them on another day (give them a few extra minutes in the oven)!

I am so thrilled that I got this book, should I see a copy of it somewhere for not a whole lot of dollars I will definitely pick up a copy. These are so good and I love that I can freeze them and then have fresh biscuits anytime I make breakfast.

Friday's Fun Fotos

You know with all of the moving and things I just thought that I would share a few recent photos of my life, just in case you don't instagram stalk me. I know pictures are super exciting, but none of these are enough for a full post so here you go. Happy Friday I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

So for months every time it rains this was my bedroom... awesome. In theory it is fixed

I had a chance to hang with my Aunt and her horses one day... so fun

New fun background on my work computer

I love this braid I just whipped up one day, fancy

The workers were here to fix things at the apt, Lily was over it.

I hope your weekend is amazing and that you are able to spend sometime with your fathers this Father's day. I won't be with mine, I wish I was but not this year. 

And so it begins...

Well it is official I am moving out of Dallas, yes I know that we have known that for months now, however I rented a truck today, hired movers in Dallas, will hire movers in Jax, and started putting things in boxes. What!?!? This is crazy. 

Look how nervous this little one is

I cannot believe that the move is getting close, less than 4 weeks. I will admit that I am so excited to get things started in Jax but at the same time it is hard to know that I am leaving all of my friends here. It seems like just yesterday that I was moving to Dallas away from all of my StL friends. Crazy. I have loved most of my time here in Dallas (there were a few minutes that just weren't awesome, but isn't it always that way).

There are a few big things that I still want to do while I am here and I have been trying to figure out how many of those there are. I know that I want to check out the Bush Library (this is W's library), I find these library's to be a must see. After that I just want to be able to spend time with my friends and family that live here. I feel like I am on a final tour... but I don't want this to be the last time that I come to town. I am sure it won't be my family lives here, so I am having a meltdown for nothing. Awesome.

Well I am off to put more things in boxes, I am hoping to get at least 7-10 boxes packed today. I am resisting packing because that makes it more real than putting money down on the move. I hope Lily and I can hold it together while we get ready to get out of Texas!

Canton, TX: Checking it off the Texas bucket list

One of the barns full of stuff

One of the items on my Texas Bucket List has been First Monday's in Canton, TX. For those that don't know this is a giant craft market with just about everything you could ever imagine. I talked two of my girlfriends into taking this adventure with me, we ended up going twice two months in a row since we got lost the first time. First Monday is divided into four parts: the Mountain, Dog Alley, Old Market Place, and the main part.

First Trip
We got there in the early afternoon and I of course put on tons of sunscreen, can't burn this skin, and we headed off. We started in Dog Alley, which was full of puppies, cats, chickens, really everything you could want. We started to pet the dogs but it was a little weird to be told to use hand sanitizer before petting the dogs. After a bit of this we headed to the Old Mill section, only a few of the shops were occupied. Then we went to the Mountain, which was super cute and hilly. This was more like an upscale garage sale and lots of junk. At this point I was over Canton, because where was the homemade stuff?!? I had asked a few people about it but no one was really helpful. We went to the Farmers Market and finally a woman was like see all of those barns across the street... that is what you were looking for. I was so over it and hot so we decided to just head home. I didn't buy anything or get a funnel cake. So I wasn't sure about this adventure at all.

Second Trip
L convinced me that we should give Canton another go, so we decided to go back the next month and only hit up the Main Barns. Parking was slightly more difficult on this trip, we wanted to be closer to the shopping this time. After we parked we got in and it was everything I could have ever hoped for. I saw so many hand crafted things, knowing I was moving really kept me from buying everything. I struggled with figuring out what I wanted and what is worth the money. Hand-crafted things are super expensive and I like to make sure I feel like they are well made before ponying up. In the end I grabbed two Texas Stars for my new patio in Florida.

They are rusty and awesome. I am pretty sure that I can sand these and paint them a different color at some point in life. I think I want to like rustic things but I don't like them. I really like pretty fancy things, so I am sure these will get painted eventually but for $3 each I will love them.

Here are a couple of tips, things I wish we had done better:
-Hit up the main barns and leave the rest alone
-Wear sneakers and shorts. It gets warm in there and we went on days that weren't too hot yet.
-If you are really shopping bring a cart. Having to carry whatever we bought kept me from buying lots of things, but if I was really shopping I would have borrowed a cart from someone so that I didn't have to carry it.
-Look for deals but if you find something you like I would just buy it.
-Use a backpack, I would have loved to not have to buy water so that I could stay hydrated. However, unlike in Dallas most of the water was $1 so it wasn't bad to have to buy water.

Looking at apartments: JAX addition

So my mom and I flew into Jacksonville late on a Wednesday and were flying back out late Saturday night. I knew that we would spend most of Thursday and Friday looking at places and that most of the work needed to be done before I landed in Jacksonville. I had come up with a list of apartments that I liked online (probably 6 A-list and 8 B-list properties), I also had written down the things I liked about the properties so that I could quickly remember which ones I liked and which ones I didn't. I will admit that having a dog and some random specific things that I will not have in my apartment made it a little difficult to like lots of properties.

Before we left for dinner I drew up a map of the city and where the properties were that I liked, previously I just used alphabetical order or even just the order in which I found them. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't driving all over the city and back-tracking since I hadn't paid attention to location.

Well this is upside down but you get the point

In the morning of the first day we started with the closet property which also happens to be the one that I loved the most. I took about 3 pictures in the unit and I am not even sure we got the whole tour, I didn't see the dog park or even the rest of the property (didn't realize that until later). From there went headed out to see several more properties, one of my favorites didn't have any openings. I will admit now that I was not overly impressed with many of the properties that we saw that day and it made me panic. Before lunch we toured one that I had liked online but I was so unimpressed once we got there, I also might have been hungry (never a good thing). We toured another one right before we headed to the beach for a break.

After the beach we found a Starbucks, which was the saving grace of this trip the wifi and coffee saved us twice. Since I was in a silent panic about having choices because at this point we hadn't seen a first floor apartment and I didn't like some of the ones we had seen. Then I opted to see apartments that I didn't even like online, that was stupid. Eventually we called it a day and I was lost as to what to rent.

On Friday we spent the morning at my new job and then out to lunch. We toured one last property, which had a first floor apartment for an extra $75 on top of the most expensive rent. Also, we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a tour, which kills me. I also didn't love that she kept talking about seeing my students around the property (not the way to get my on board).

So back to Starbucks... I made a pro/con list while my mom read and I could see on her face that she was panicking too.

The list was crazy helpful, at some point it came down to who had what I wanted for the price that I was willing to pay. I found it interesting that a big part of my decision was how good the property would be for Lily. I think I would have rented the most expensive property for her but at the end of the day I think we will be super happy with the one we chose.

The kitchen, major selling point

This is our building!!

Healthy Lunch

In recent months I have been working on getting my lunch under control. I find that I forget that 100 calorie packs add up, you know if you eat 5 of them that is 500 calories not like 200. So in the last few months I have been trying to find options that I like and don't feel like I have eaten a million and five calories. Here is one of my current faves, I have estimated the calories for each part (I may be a scientist but these are just best guess numbers).

Tortellini with parmesan cheese and tomatoes: ~206 (tortellini), ~40 (parm), 5 (tomatoes)
Carrots and Hummus:  32 (carrots) and ~35 (hummus)
Nectarine: 62 calories

Total: 380 calories

A couple of things about the tortellini dish, I take the small package from the grocery store and cook it and then divide it into 4 portions, in this case. I keep it in the fridge and add some cheese and tomatoes in the morning and leave for work. I do tend to bring a few other options just in case I get really hungry in the afternoon. No one wants a hunger monster to show up in the office. I also tend to drink water which has zero calories! Yay!

Afternoon snack: goldfish crackers or a banana

I almost always have a snack at some point in the afternoon but I try to keep it around 100 calories, since that is what they are currently recommending. I eat cereal and coffee (with creamer) for breakfast.

What do you eat for lunch? I will try and share my other most favorite lunch soon.