reverb: day 2

prompt:

what do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

i write day in and day out... i'm a communications major, so that's what i signed up for! (yep, my fiance thinks i'm insane being the numbers man that he is) the biggest hinderance in my writing (for fun) is that i do so much writing for school. sometimes i'll be working on three papers at one time and then even thinking about forming cohesive sentences for fun seems much too far out of my league. however, it's always a relief to put out words that i feel like writing than words that i have to somehow construct.

so many of my past blogs have been sorry notes because i let the time between posts go sooo long... time really does fly, whether you're having fun or not! this is going to be one of my new year's resolutions... be a better blogger!

merry meringues for christmas

this Christmas was the year of the meringues. my mom and i have subscriptions to the foodnetwork.com magazine and it's absolutely amazing. we both cook out of it five nights a week.

the following recipe was on their website and yummmmm it's delicious!

meringue swirls:

• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature


• pinch of salt


• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar


• 3/4 cup superfine sugar


• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or use 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract)


• coarse sugar crystals and/or silver nonpareils, for sprinkling

how to make these sugary little treats:

1. preheat the oven to 250 degrees f.

2. line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. beat the egg whites and salt in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until frothy (use the whisk attachment if using a stand mixer).

4. add the cream of tartar.

5. increase the speed to medium high and add the superfine sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. (i just ma

ke sure to pour slowly and to move it around the bowl as i'm adding it... otherwise it takes forever!)

6. scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the meringue (or add the extract) and continue beating until the sugar is dissolved and the meringue is thick, glossy and forms stiff peaks, about 6 minutes. (however, if it's not thick and glossy with stiff peaks don't stop, just keep beating it... you can never beat it too much)

7. fit a piping bag with a large star tip. fill the bag with the meringue and pipe spirals on the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. (you can use a plastic snack baggie if you don't have the piping bags)

8. sprinkle with the coarse sugar. (colored is always pretty!)

9. bake 1 hour, then turn off the oven and let the meringues stand in the oven until dry, about 2 hours.

*make sure to store in an airtight container up to 1 week or they start to get gooey or creepy.

i'm taking these to a christmas eve dinner with my fiance and his family tomorrow... so i made them christmassy by adding green and red sugar with a little heart for the tree topper... what do you think? yep, you can call me martha stewart.



you can also add cocoa powder to the mix (just a tablespoon or two) and it'll make chocolate which are also delicious!

song of the day:

merry christmas from the family

by: rosie o'donnell and the dixie chicks

if you haven't heard the rosie christmas cds... you need to because they are hysterical!

welcome... and the reverb project: day 1

welcome to my new blog site! i moved everything over from synchronicitie. i was very sad to go, but i am very impressed by the wordpress interface. my little blog is going to go in a new direction because... well, my life is going in a new direction.

you will start finding recipes (cooking plays a huge part in my life so i must add it on here) as well as more updates and pictures.... so, here is the initial post after all of the talk:

there is a really amazing new interesting project for writers, bloggers, thinkers, alike. you can find them here. i have decided to start pondering the prompts... however, i won't be doing them as frequently as every day, but instead taking my time on them and making sure that i'm really reflecting on each given prompt.

for today:

One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell)

my answer:

metamorphisis.

it's like the caterpillar that must give up some of its precious time and the brightness of day to endure a lonely, dark time in his cocoon, in order to grow into a vivacious butterfly complete with fanciful wings.

there is no longer just a plain, old amber, instead there is a bright new girl working to grow and maintain the network of relationships that define my many roles... especially right now.

1. through the course of my dad's sickness (and now his healing) i have come to realize that my family means more to me than i could possibly put into words. my dad's sweetness, my mom's humor, my brothers' jokes and larger than life personalities keep my heart smiling through the hard times.

2. my mom and i were always close, but in the last year or so we have forged a closer relationship than we have ever had before. it's a two way road... instead of just a mom bossing around her unruly daughter. boom, i couldn't ask for more!

3. college is coming to a close. with the end of the year comes the beginning of the end. i am preparing to step out of the mold of a student and then define myself as a worker in the world. i know that everyone says i have the rest of my life to work... but i'm really truly sort of excited.

4. finally, my fiance. goodness, what a lucky girl i am. i cannot believe that went from being a girlfriend to being a lifelong commitment. i mean, i knew that it was coming and it's what i've always dreamed of... but it's always been just that, a dream. now the dream is becoming a reality and woohoo!

the year ahead, 2011, promises much brightness and a life filled with loads of fun memories to be cherished forever. thanks to 2010, and bring it on 2011!!

song of the day:

stand up

by: sugarland

if you haven't listened to sugarland's incredible machine cd, you must. but, this song in particular is a reminder that life goes on, it's going to be ok, just stand up. stand up knowing that your beautiful wings are going to spread and be ready to soar... but you must, like the caterpillar, be okay with some downtime in the cocoon.

jason is this girl's best friend (well plus mama bird)

so, it's been a while (once again)... but i was suffering through finals and then took a vacation to mexico with my.... well, he was a boyfriend, but now he's my...

FIANCE!

yep, we're ENGAGED!

i can't begin to tell everyone how excited i am (we are) and what a huge blessing jason has been in my life. i am still in shock that i actually get to share the rest of my life with him, especially with the blessings of family and friends that God has blessed us with.... like He says in the Bible:

"there are three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love."

-1 corinthians 13:13

God has already poured so much love on us already, our families and friends have been fantastic and so supportive... and we are ready to start this amazing time in our lives... and do it together!

please stay tuned for all of the excitement and i promise to keep things up to date on here... :)

song of the day:

love never fails

by: brandon heath

just listen to it, every single word in the song is absolutely perfect and amazing. God wrote the song for brandon to sing and it's perfect.

it's the most wonderful time of year!

i am back, after much too long of a sabbatical. whoops. how does time fly so fast?

rather than apologize and say i need to get better at consistency (though i truly believe that i do) i am going to share what i have learned the last 26 days in my not posting period.

1. i love being unemployed.

i am enjoying my last bit of time as a student and have decided to take a break from being a working student (plus, as everyone tells me, i have the rest of my life to work!). boy, oh boy, is life so sweet this way. i get so much more done, in school work and in reading my bible and running and being a much more fun and spontaneous daughter with my sweet mama bird.

2. i don't want to do any job that requires extensive field note writing.

i'm taking a class that requires me to write field notes twice a week and, to be quite frank, by the end of the two and a half hours it takes me to document every detail i could possibly recall during my volunteer time, i have zero desire to sit in front of my computer screen again.

3. i am madly in love with my other half, jason.

i made a promise to myself to not be ridiculous, or remotely reminiscient of a hormonal teenage girl, in writing about my beau. however, he has just bloomed into quite the funny man and i am so proud to call him mine. not only do i think he's absolutely one hundred percent precious, but most everyone else does too. let me just say,

he is a TOUCHDOWN!

(he'll appreciate this being the football lover he is, although i'm much more partial to SCOREEE!)

4. mama bird = best friend for life (yep, now i'm sounding like a second grade girl)

everything that has happened with my dad has brought my family closer together and this makes me thankful. but more than that, my mom is more my best friend now than ever before. yep, she's a real life version of house, m.d. (great show!) and i'm proud to get to call her mine.

5. there is a time for everything.

God has set out a great path for me, for my family, for my beau... and i'm thankful to be a part of all of the crazy adventures that life throws our way. plus, He is providing us all with time...

a time to cry

a time to fear

a time to question

a time to rejoice

a time to thank

a time to wish

a time to embrace

a time to pray

a time to cling

a time to laugh

but in all of this time, He has given us hope, faith, and love to an endless, infinite degree. thank God for His goodness that goes so far beyond the greatest stretch of the imagination.

thank you, thank you, thank you.

in ecclesiastes 3:4-8, God lets us know about time... about how things change but about how they return... just like the swing at the playset in elementary school. back and forth, back and forth, but in the end, it's all in His control.

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance.

a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

a time to search and a time to give up as lost;

a time to keep and a time to throw away.

a time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

a time to be silent and a time to speak.

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace.

yay for his perfect timing. thank goodness i'm not in charge of all this and can just enjoy the ride (as much as i want to be a planner!)

song of the day:

let it snow, let it snow

by: lady antebellum

yipeee! it's that time of year for Christmas cheer!!!

charlie the cheez-it

i introduced you all to my dear little friend marcell the shell, who was quite precious and i wrote a couple little post on him. well, this little man, charlie the cheez-it, is marcell's friend. but it's the story behind charlie that i truly love!

an eight-year-old girl saw the marcell the shell video and loved it so much that she decided to make her own. her aunts helped her get it all together.

i truly appreciate the sweetness in it all. and i'm thinking maybe i should try my hand at making one of these little critters for all to adore.

song of the day:

trademark

by: relient k

watch out for my trade marked little buddy for charlie and marcell. it's not going to be right away, but it'll be. maybe later this month on my break from school for thanksgiving?

oh, and, just for everyone's peace of mind, the bugs are dead and all blocked out. whooooo what a close call!

yuck, yuck, and more yuck

i am quite possibly the world's cleanest person. i clean like it's going out of style and i know that sometimes it drives poor jason nuts when i'm busy cleaning and he just wants to watch a movie. however, a tragedy has come over my clean little apartment.

cockroaches.

yep, there is a hole in the roof of my bathroom and they crawl in the fan and wah-lah! i have a new roommate. it is repulsive, disgusting, absolutely freaky. and, did you know they have wings? oh, you bet they do... and i don't think they use the wings to keep themselves cool during hot weather.

poor jason has been playing exterminator and killing the few that i have seen. but i don't know how much longer it'll be before i find one on my own time... and the screech that will follow as soon as i find my first one will be the screech heard around the world. (i'm getting the creepy crawlies just writing about it right now)

and i guess killing them with bug spray isn't really an option because they're crazy little buggers... no wonder people say that cockroaches could survive a nuclear bomb. yuck. i guess they can't survive being stepped on by a boot... however, i hope to never know that for sure.

please pray for my safety... and sanity... because i'm thinking i could be abducted by a bunch of critters and be never seen again.

song of the day:
don't panic
by: coldplay

as much as this song is soothing and wonderful... i can just hear little bug legs creepy-crawling in the background.