Adorable

The new white house puppy is too cute!

photo via abc news

Bo Obama makes me smile :)

Hmm

Thought of the day:

"A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait."
-Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

image via Shabby Chic

p.s. I also really like this quote by Horace Mann: "Avoid witicisms at the expense of others"

Easter Time

Let me first state that I LOVE Easter. I love Easter dresses and Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts and Easter church service, oh yeah and Easter dinner! This Easter, we were in Athens for church. We haven't done an Easter at the Branch in a while. We were there this time around primarily because I had to teach third hour. After my lesson, we zipped up to Rabun to the Dillard House for a little Easter feast with my family. Dillard Georgia is so pretty in the springtime!
After lunch we headed back to Toccoa and started the Easter Egg Contest.
The older boys (David, Aron and my dad) decided to watch the Masters instead of entering our contest, so it was just my mom, Dawson and me competing.
We decided to have two categories: face eggs and design eggs.
We painted away and then had the boys judge.

These were the entries (the design eggs weren't so great, hence no picture):

My egg is on the left. I titled it "my little french girl".
Dawson's egg is in the middle he called his "rappin' santa egg"
(he's in a faze where everything is "rappin'").
My mom's egg is on the right. She called hers "my little clown girl"
-for some reason we have a tradition of starting the names with "my little", it's a long story-

Needless to say, I won.

A little bit of her face dye rubbed off, but I think her sparkle beret is pretty amazing.

Me with my egg.

After the contest, I hid eggs for Dawson and Aron, even though he is sick, agreed to hunt for them with Dawson.
Dawson found the most and he won a weekend trip to the mountains with David and me.
We had a very, very nice Easter.

Currently Reading

Thanks to my lovely friend Stephanie, I am currently reading this wonderful book. The Glass Castle is by Jeannette Walls and is a memoir of her crazy life growing up. I find her stories so intriguing, because growing up with a parent or parents who suffer from mental illness is such a singular thing. Many of her stories are beautiful and very often funny, but as Walls tells them, you sense the pain of remembrance.
I really love the story early on, when they're driving through the desert in their car, and they drive over railroad tracks. The car is so old and rickety, the door flies open and Walls rolls out. She comes to and realizes that her parents don't know that she has fallen out. She has to wait several minutes, when finally she sees the car coming back for her. The story is funny, but you also understand the state of their family in this scene.
I wasn't sure if I would love this book, like I love David Sedaris' tales, but Walls' stories are engaging, meaningful and like Sedaris, they bring to the surface my memories of my family and the idea that all lives are a mixture of beauty and pain.
Thanks Steph. I'm really enjoying it.

Where the Wild Things Are

I don't know about anyone else,



but I am SUPER excited about this movie! The preview is amazing. I love the use of "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire, great song.

May flowers? . . .

Contented Me did a post about Elizabeth Rosas Jewelry at Etsy. The earrings were so pretty, I decided to take a look at her offerings and I fell in love with this ring!


I ADORE English roses. They are so feminine and pretty! I think this ring captures those qualities well.

Perhaps our April showers will bring me this May flower?

p.s. all of Elizabeth Rosas's pieces are amazing! Definitely one of my new favorite AFFORDABLE designers!

Fuggets

David and I usually have a daily chat about what we want for dinner. Yesterday, David said we should have chicken nuggets. I had to ask for clarification as to what he meant, since we haven't had chicken in over a year. He explained that he had picked up some faux chicken nuggets from the store.
Since our foray into vegetarianism, I have developed a liking for veggie and soy burgers and hotdogs, but I have been a bit wary of faux chicken.
David baked the nuggets and I hesitantly took a bite . . .
They were WAY BETTER than any other chicken nugget I have ever had!
They were not fatty or greasy like real chicken nuggets, but they have a taste and texture that is identical to good chicken.
I wondered what they were made of, so David got the box and we took a peek.
The company is called Quorn, and they use all natural products, but no soy.
Instead, these tasty nuggets are made of several types of FUNGI.
They are a source of complete protein and 9 amino acids. They have no cholesterol and very little fat.

We ate them all for dinner (it's a small box, only about 12 nuggets total) and then sat around inventing alternative names for the product.
I said they should be called "Fuggets". Fungal nuggets = Fuggets. Then David suggested a few names. This is what we do on weeknights.

So if you are looking for a great alternative to chicken nuggets, try Fuggets.