{Start Your Own Collection}

We are all familiar with the collection of 100+ figurines in GrAnNy’S curio cabinet.  However, before you write off “collections” consider collecting just a few of your favorite items such as ViNtAgE spoons, autographs from you favorite people, AnTiQuE fishing lures, concert tickets, John Deere toy tractors {my dad had that collection!} or seashells to name only a few.  Here are some other ideas:

Vintage baseball GloVes.

Baseballs.

Globes.

PlaYfuL items such as these Pez dispensers.

Vintage cameras.

RoOsTeRs.

Favorite Childhood ToYs.

Figurines such as those from Willow Tree

Old Telephones or Typewriters.

BoTtLeS.

What’s your PaSsiOn?  What warms your SouL?  What things, when you see them, instantly take you back to a fond memory in your life?  Find those things you loved as a child or have grown to love.  {Just the hunt may be exhilarating!  Winning a bid on EbAy can be a thrill!!}  They will bring back memories, will be a good conversation piece and be something that just makes you feel HaPpY!

P.S.  Many of the above photos were taken at GoOd Ju Ju, a favorite antique shop of mine in Kansas City.  Click here if you want to see the road trip that Lara and I took to Good Ju Ju last June!

Find Out Who Your Friends Are

Over the course of your life you develop numerous friendships.  Family friends, elementary school friends, high school friends, college friends, work friends, neighborhood friends, parenting friends, and the list goes on and on.  In recent years the use of Facebook has become a way to rekindle friendships that fell to the way side or even ignite friendships with people who at one time were just acquaintances.  In our busy day-to-day lives it can be hard to Be TheRe for all of these friends or to even set aside a time to get together and catch up.  However in the back of our minds there are always those friends who you know would drop everything in an instant if you needed them.

Over four years ago I delivered my son three weeks early after being induced for preeclampsia.  One day after I returned home with my newborn I was rushed to the emergency room with dangerously high blood pressure.  I spent the next three days hooked up to a magnesium drip to get my blood pressure under control.  I was already feeling the onset of postpartum depression (click to read my story) and all of the medication I was now taking made me completely disoriented.  I was in and out of sleep, my vision was blurry, and my head felt like I had been hit my a truck.  While laying in my hospital bed missing my newborn baby boy I looked at the door and was able to make out the outline of someone walking in.  I knew immediately it was my friend Jessica and in that moment I felt peace.  Jessica and I have known each other since we took dancing school together at age four.  We’ve been through so much together and no distance or circumstance has ever kept us apart when it CoUnTs.  That day in the hospital I couldn’t talk or even see her clearly, but that didn’t matter.  She sent my mom home to shower and sat and read magazines while she watched me rest.  She called in sick to work that day because she knew I needed her and to this day I am GrAtEfUl.

The Tracy Lawrence song “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” has always reminded me of our friendship.  I am sure you all have your own “Jessica” in your lives and can relate to the lyrics.

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

Live-It List Hidden Question of the Week

Which friend can you count on for all of life’s ups and downs?

Comment below to receive 1 point.

For more details: http://thesuedesofa.com/2011/10/02/win-a-coach-purse-the-details/

I’m Not There

Do you ever read our posts or talk to someone and think, I am NOT feeling it or I am NOT there?  I have moMenTs like that. Someone may share with me their weight loss journey or new cleaning routine, and in my mind I’m thinking how exercise and cleaning are the last things on my mind right now!

We all need time to shut off our mind now and then.  Often times the bEsT mEdiciNe is taking a break from it all!  Can I hear an “Amen!”?  There are days I need silence.  No to-do lists, no challenges, and no radio or phones ringing in the background.  I just need to escape.

Your escape may be as short as an afternoon, or in certain areas of your life, it may be for months or years.  The good thing about being surrounded by people/things that inspire you is that they are there when you are ready to tackle the world again.  We can’t escape forever, but after we catch our breath, the resources for a pOsiTive outlook on life will be there to greet us when we are ready.  Better yet, these resources may be a pleasant surprise and assist you in an area of your life when you least expect!

So if you are currently on a getaway, know that you are weLcoMe on our sofa anytime.  We are happy to have someone to share our thoughts with and completely understand if you aren’t quite there yet :)

~Lara

{Mental Drag}

One of the things that I have observed about myself is that living in a space that is DisOrgaNizEd and mEsSy is a huge drain on me mentally.  For that reason, one of the first things I do when I need to get a project completed is make sure my surroundings are in order.

Are you having difficulty getting MoTivAtEd?  If so, are you living in a mess?  If you answered “YeS” to those qustions you may want to consider trying to clean up YoUr SpAcE.  I know for me, it’s as if MeNtaL SpAcE is taken up when I am living in chaos, but a clean and organized space stimulates CrEaTiviTy and mOtivAtiOn.

What is your “mental drag”?  It may not be having a messy space, but whatever it is, what can you do to EliMinAte it or greatly ReDucE it’s effects?  Doing so may be just what it takes to get you moving in the RiGht DiRectIoN! 

:)

Robynn~

{God’s Not Freaking Out, So Relax!}

I like this popular poster originally printed during WWII. It is a great reminder to "Remain Calm Everyone."

This post is for the person whose life seems CrAzY and out of control.  If you’re not there, you can read it anyway, because although you may not find yourself in that PrEdiCeMeNt today, eventually life cycles through and you’ll be there.  I’m not being negative.  It’s just the reality.  And it’s just part of the CycLe.

Not forever.

Not the end of the world.

This too shall pass.

And best of all, in your chaos, remember that God is not freaking out.  He’s CaLm.  So, carry on.

;) Robynn

Stacy’s {Winning} Cheese-y Potato Soup

This past December, the high school where I previously taught, had a soup ThRoWdOwN {not sure exactly what they called it} amongst their staff.  A friend & former colleague of mine, StAcY, won the contest.  I asked her if she would mind me sharing her prize-winning recipe.  Here it is:

Stacy’s Cheese-y Potato Soup

Ingredients:

  • Potatoes (8-10 medium)
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 large brick of Velveeta cheese
  • 1 onion
  • 1 cup real bacon pieces or 6-8 pieces of bacon fried and cut up into small pieces.
  • Roll of Jimmy Dean hot sausage
  • 3 cans of corn
  • 2 & 1/4 cups Bisquick mix
  • 2/3 cup milk

Peel and cut up your potatoes.  Place in a large kettle.  Add enough water to completely cover all potatoes.  Boil for 20 minutes.  While potatoes are boiling, saute onions, brown sausage, and fry bacon.  Cut up Velveeta into small pieces and melt.  Once potatoes are finished (DO NOT DRAIN WATER), add onion, sausage, bacon, corn (undrained), and melted Velveeta cheese.  In a separate bowl, stir Bisquick mix and milk until soft dough forms.  Place on surface sprinkled with Bisquick mix.  Knead 10 times—once soup is very warm, add Bisquick & milk dumplings (spoonful at a time), and then add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, stir and heat then enjoy!

Lara and I actually tried the soup when our husbands were away at the Cotton Bowl.  {Yes, sLuMbEr PaRtiEs at our age are still fun!}  The soup was YuMmY!  How could it not be with a brick of Velveeta and heavy whipping cream?!  It certainly had that “CoMfOrT FoOd” quality.  The only thing that would have made it more perfect is eating it while watching a blizzard outside our window.  But hey, we weren’t complaining about the 70+ degree weather we were having that day!!  Now that the weather resembles more of the wintery kind, give it a try.  Once you do, you’ll understand why it took home the PrIzE!

ME

The other night my family and I were hanging out after dinner.  Doug and my daughter, Leanne, were snuggled up on the couch.  I wasn’t really paying attention until I heard Doug ask, “Leanne, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

She paused for a second, and then replied, “I want to be me!”

I immediately stopped what I was doing.  Time stood still for a second.  Me….I want to be ME.  That answer kept repeating over and over in my head.  I want to be me when I grow up…who ever thinks to say that?  Is that even an option to choose from?

I’m still in awe of hearing those words, and am reMinDed of all the things we can learn from children.  They are so innocent, full of energy and confidence.  Isn’t that the way we all want to live?  And why can’t we?  Why can’t you just want to be YOU?

It is easy to always want what we don’t have.  The cars, the body, the money, the career, the perfect family…we constantly pick and choose areas in people’s life that we ‘want to be when we grow up’.  The reality is, the people you want to be like, also want more in life. It is a vicious cycle and impossible to keep up.

Why do we do this to ourselves?  It is so exhausting!  We get so foCuSed on wanting to be someone else that we forget to APPRECIATE what has already be given to us.  Be happy being YOU.  YOU have something that no one else does.  Don’t be so quick to wish it away.  Enjoy it!

~Lara

There’s Room for More

Stepping outside of my comfort zone has NeVeR come easy.  Until I was in my 20’s the list of foods I would eat was limited to say the least and to this day I shock people when I tell them I only lasted 2 nights away at college.  In 3 days my parents moved me in and out of a 5th floor dorm room at the University of Rhode Island back to my all familiar bedroom and I was commuting to Seton Hall the next morning.  I order the exact same personal pizza at our favorite local restaurant every Friday night and I managed to find a Dunkin Donuts in Aruba while on our honeymoon so I could get my daily fix of french vanilla coffee light and sweet.

Call me traditional, stubborn, or just plain crazy…but that’s me the way I like to be!  That is until my daughter received the Disney movie Tangled for Christmas.  For as long as I can remember CiNdErElLa has been my favorite princess.  Of course I liked Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but Cinderella was my girl.  Last week I reluctantly sat down with my kids to watch Tangled and see what this Rapunzel had to offer.  Not only did I LOVE the movie but I found myself having an inner struggle with myself over how much I really LOVED this new Disney princess.  I tried to let it go but as my kids wanted to watch the movie over and over again, I too wanted to take in every second of its BrilLiAnCe.  Shortly after this princess competition I created in my head began, I mentioned my new fondness for Rapunzel to my sister.  She has been a Belle fan her whole life and I knew she would set me straight.  After discussing Rapunzel’s charming qualities as though she were a real person, we both agreed that this new spitfire of a princess had won both of our hearts.

So what you might ask does this have to do with anything?  EvErYtHiNg!!!  How many times have you said “No” to something because it wasn’t in your comfort zone?  Think of all you might be missing and what’s out there waiting for you to discover.  Plus…no one ever said you could only have one favorite!

I Was Hiding and I Didn’t Know It

A couple of weeks ago my husband had made the oBserVation on how I don’t put things away when I am done using them.  I responded the way I always do, “It’s because the kids probably distracted me when I was getting ready to clean up”.

That conversation tugged on me for a week.  Was there tRuTh behind my husband’s observation of my untidiness?  I decided I would test myself and see.  After making a point to break this habit for a week, the answer is YES.  I have been hIdiNg behind the excuse of the kids, and I never knew it.  Not only did I realize that Doug was right (see my “Tastes like vinegar” post), but it has actually made my life easier.  I don’t have as much to pick up at night and I feel more organized during the day.  Now, don’t get me wrong—my house is not spotless because I don’t spend all day picking up after the kids.  BUT, if I get it out, I put it away when I am finished!

It was hard to admit that Doug was right, but I did what all wives should do (no matter how bad it tastes!) and thanked him. Sometimes people tell us things that hurt, but after we have time to cool off, we should try to see if there is some truth to what they are saying.  It was worth the pain knowing that Doug loves me enough to hold me aCcouNtabLe so I can be a better ME.  If I’m not willing to allow my spouse to hold me accountable then who will?  The truth hurts, but let’s be honest, being stubborn gets you nowhere.

~Lara

Live-It List Hidden Question of the Week

What will be the hardest item to achieve on your Live-It list?

Comment below to receive 1 point.

For more details: http://thesuedesofa.com/2011/10/02/win-a-coach-purse-the-details/