saturday upsides: the small, ordinary pleasures of home

Posted on February 16, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy weekend, everyone! It’s time to celebrate Saturday Upsides!

Yesterday, I was reading a lovely collection of short stories, Who’s Irish? by Gish Jen, and I came across this quote about life as a mother and homemaker that really struck a chord with me. Maybe it will for you, too!

“It was absurd to be made happy by this small shared anticipation. Before the table actually got set, there had to be an argument about whose turn it was. How could this make Pammie happy? But it did, even as it drove her batty. She liked her busy boredom, too, if only because it readied her for the moment when Adam presented Inka with a rattle shaped like a football, or when Phoebe invented her own version of Duck, Duck, Goose: House, House, Home, this was called. You had to be a little bored to have those moments break over you the way they could. But if you sat waiting in a good dark night, they opened and opened like a brand of newfangled fireworks that lit the clouds, and the ground below, too, and all the faces turned upward, then fell with a sparkling rush right into your hands.”

– an excerpt from the story “House, House, Home” from the collection Who’s Irish by Gish Jen

I treasure the small, ordinary moments of life at home with those I love!

What are your upsides this weekend?

my valentine’s day plans

Posted on February 14, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy Valentine’s Day!

My lunch today is leftover tilapia, veggies, and — to make things a little special! — a couple of red velvet crinkle cookies. I made them yesterday to deliver to the nursing home along with valentines for my Week 6 Year of Kindness Challenge, and they are just the way I like cookies to be: dense, chewy, soft in the middle and crispy around the edges. YUM!

After I finish teaching, I have plans for dinner and then a late show of the new Nicholas Sparks movie Safe Haven. I’m so excited!

I came across this Valentine’s poster idea from Julie at PB Fingers and I wanted to show you this morning in case anyone is looking for a last-minute gift idea for their sweetie! This one is inexpensive, easy, and pretty dang adorable.

Here’s what you do: leave a trail of Hershey’s kisses from the doorway through the house to the bedroom. Then have a sign waiting like this one, surrounded by more Hershey’s kisses:

Isn’t that such a cute idea?

I’m going to sign off now and get going on my day! I hope your Valentine’s Day is filled with a ton of love, laughter, and of course chocolate! 🙂 What are you doing to celebrate today?

xoxo,
Dallas

other valentine’s posts you might enjoy:
– easy + inexpensive valentine’s day cards
– an adorable owl craft project
– my favorite romantic movies
– 6 simple sweets to make your sweetie for valentine’s day
– hand-crafted valentine’s day decor

peanut butter cup brownies

Posted on February 13, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Thanks to everyone who joined in Monday for this week’s #yearofkindness challenge {delivering valentines to a nursing home} and those who were with us last week for my fave romantic movies and easy, inexpensive homemade Valentines ideas. Today we’re continuing “Valentine’s Week” with a delicious recipe that you can make for your sweetie, friends, coworkers, or even yourself!

Peanut butter and chocolate may be my all-time favorite dessert combo, so it’s no surprise I was inspired to combine peanut butter cups and dark chocolate brownie mix! I thought I was soooo clever for using my muffin tin to make these cute little brownie cups, but one of my friends told me she and her mom have been making these babies for years. Maybe I’m a little late to the party, or maybe it’s just true that great minds think alike! 🙂 Either way, these are de-li-cious and so easy to whip up. Enjoy!

peanut butter cup brownies

– 1 package brownie mix {i like the dark chocolate variety}
– 1 package mini peanut butter cups
– 1 egg
– 1/3 cup vegetable oil
– 1/3 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper cups or spray with vegetable spray and set aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine brownie mix, egg, vegetable oil, and water. Stir until ingredients are well-mixed and there are no lumps in the batter.

3. Fill each muffin cup 3/4 of the way to the top with the batter.

4. In the center of each cup, gently press an unwrapped peanut butter cup.

5. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean.

YUM! These are dangerously good. You’ll want to eat the whole batch yourself!

What are some of your favorite Valentine’s Day memories? Are you planning to do any Valentine’s baking this year?

More tomorrow!
-Dallas ❤

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Looking for more Valentine’s Day treats to make? You might enjoy these earlier posts:
– red velvet cupcakes with coconut cream-cheese frosting
– rice krispies treats with m&ms
– chocolate strawberry coconut cookies

year of kindness challenge: week 6

Posted on February 11, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy Monday, everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was quite lovely and filled with friend time, which was SO nice. In grad school often everyone is so busy that it can be difficult to find time to get together, even on weekends. This weekend turned out to be the perfect timing for lots of social get-togethers. I had lunch with friends on Saturday, saw a movie with a friend yesterday afternoon– the new release Side Effects which was a terrific, twists-and-turns-filled thriller! — and had more friends over last night for dessert and many rounds of a very addictive Chinese card game called “Da Fa.”

My brother Greg has been in the forefront of my mind all weekend, because he departed for his month-long goodwill trip to Sri Lanka with a group of Rotary ambassadors. I am going to miss talking to him every day, but I am just bursting with pride and excitement for him. He is giving away 70 new pairs of shoes and socks through his nonprofit organization Give Running. You can follow his team’s travels on their blog at http://ustosrilanka2013.org/

Here’s a picture of me and Greg with a mountain of shoes he has collected and cleaned!

Last week’s Kindness Challenge was to do something kind for a neighbor. I have new neighbors who moved into the apartment below me back in November, and most of our encounters have taken place at 3 in the morning, when I go downstairs and knock on their door to kindly ask if they could turn down their bass subwoofer that is shaking the walls. {It is ridiculously hard to sleep when there is a rap beat thumping loudly and incessantly below you!} However, they are typically nice about turning it down when asked, and I thought I would try a tactic of kindness to let them know it is appreciated.

So I baked them cookies!

I baked a sampling of double-chocolate chip, peanut butter chocolate chip, and oatmeal butterscotch. {And yes, I may have eaten a few myself!} 🙂

Then I stacked the cookies in this clear plastic container that I washed and upcycled {it originally came from a package of pineapple that we used last week when I made bbq pulled-pork sandwiches.}

I taped a thank you-note to the front of the container and dropped it off in front of their door.

When I returned that night, the cookies were gone, so I assume the neighbors found them and brought them inside. I have not seen them in the hallways or anything, but I also did not have a problem with their loud subwoofer this past week, so maybe the two things are connected! 🙂 Here’s hoping we continue to have lovely quiet sleep-tastic nights around here.

Have you ever had a positive experience trying to “kill someone with kindness”? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!

Here are some other good things that happened in my world this week:

Someone is posting kind notes in the bathroom in the English department! They kept popping up all week and totally brightened my mood. Here’s a favorite that I came across on Thursday:

I have managed to stay healthy so far {knock on wood} despite a flu bug that is making its way around campus.
My students are being extra attentive lately — always a bonus in my book!

How did the Week 5 Kindness Challenge go for you? What good things happened in your life this week?

Now on to the Week 6 Kindness Challenge: deliver Valentines to a nursing home, Veterans Hospital or assisted-living facility. I got this idea after I delivered holiday cards and cookies to a nursing home this past Christmas, and it was such a wonderful experience. The residents were beyond grateful and it warmed my heart to make them feel like someone was thinking of them and sending them good wishes during the holiday season. Celebrate Valentine’s Day by spreading love and kindness to elderly people in your town who may otherwise be forgotten!

Blog about your experiences and include your links in the comments section below, or feel free to send me an email at dallaswoodburn <AT> gmail <DOT> com.

Have a marvelous week!
-Dallas

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year of kindness archives:
– week 1 challenge: donate items to those in need
– week 2 challenge: leave quarters & note at laundry machine
– week 3 challenge: write & send a kind handwritten note
– week 4 challenge: give hot chocolate to someone outside in the cold
– week 5 challenge: do something kind for a neighbor

goals & meal plan for the week of 2/10

Posted on February 10, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Last week absolutely flew by! It was a productive and balanced week — filled with work time, crafts, fun, friends, and lots of yummy food — but looking over my goals, I was feeling a little discouraged. How could I feel so productive all week, but then have so many uncrossed-off goals at the week’s end?

Then I found this amongst my school papers:

It’s my “mind-dump” to-do list from the past couple of days. Whenever I have a lot of little things running through my mind, I like to get out a piece of paper and write everything down, which usually helps clear my head so I can focus better on my tasks for the day. This list is filled with tasks big and small — grading to finish up, a specific email to send, housekeeping chores, a fellowship application to finish up — and it was quite long! I was really happy to find this and see all the items crossed off, because it reminded me that I actually did a great job working towards my goals this week. Some weeks just have more unexpected tasks crop up than others do, and sometimes surprises take precedent over the goals you set at the beginning of a week or month. And that’s okay.

This week, I finalized some paperwork about my thesis defense, submitted short stories to three journals, went out on a date night with Mike, got together with friends for a lovely catch-up visit, talked to one of my young writing mentees over Skype, prepped for a workshop I’m teaching in a few weeks to fellow graduate instructors at Purdue, sold a couple of chairs via Craigslist, made pumpkin pie and a batch of chocolate-covered pretzels, started a Valentine’s Week series on this blog … all sorts of good things that were important and fun and necessary, but hadn’t showed up on my goals list for the week.

All this was also a good reminder that I tend to over-reach at times with goal-setting, biting off more than I can chew. In the past couple weeks, I’ve been setting ambitious goals to work on my YA novel manuscript AND revise large chunks of my thesis. It just isn’t happening. It’s not possible for me to do both, at least not right now when I’m working on broad, sweeping revisions to my thesis that require a lot of rewriting and additions of brand-new material.

So I’m stepping back a little and reassessing my writing goals. For the next three weeks, I’m going to focus all my attentions on my thesis novel and see how far along I get. I think I’ll feel better about my writing goals if I’m celebrating the work I DO get done, not feeling guilty about the writing I don’t have time to do {for me lately, the YA novel manuscript.} And from a practical standpoint, it is easier for me to immerse myself in one large project at a time. Trying to work on two novels at once left me feeling drained and a little lost between the different worlds, storylines and characters I was creating.

So, that’s my big changes for goals this upcoming week! Have you ever needed to step back and reassess your goals? Is anyone else like me, sometimes biting off too much at once?

Here’s how I did on my goals from last week:

write 10 more pages of my YA novel
revise next 4 chapters of my thesis novel {worked on some major revision, but it’s a little slower going than I thought it would be}
~~blog about Week 5 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week~~
finish reading & blog about 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess {finished reading this; blog post coming soon!}
~~finish reading & blog about The Secret Keeper~~
~~finish the scarf I’m working on~~
clean out & organize filing cabinet
~~mail out my Valentines~~

Here are my goals for this upcoming week:

revise up to page 60 of my thesis novel
blog about Week 6 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week
blog about 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess
clean out and organize filing cabinet
knit 25 rows of the new scarf I’m working on
make 3 changes/updates as part of the #28DBC

And here are some recipes on my menu for this week:

– tilapia with pineapple salsa
– chicken with stuffing in the crock pot
– teriyaki meatball bowls
– mini hot cocoa cookies

What are your goals and meal plans for this week?

This post is linked up to Menu-Plan Monday!

saturday upsides: my favorite romantic movies

Posted on February 9, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy weekend, everyone! Time for another edition of Saturday Upsides — today, in honor of Valentine’s Week, I’m excited to share with you some of my all-time favorite romantic movies. I came across an article on Cracked.com yesterday about how the weather influences people’s preferences when it comes to movies: when people are warm they generally prefer action movies; when they are cold they generally prefer romantic movies. Makes sense to me!

Valentine’s Day + cold winter weather = the perfect time to curl up under a blanket and watch a good romance!

Here are a few of my top picks:

Serendipity

This is probably my favorite “chick flick” of all time! It came out when I was in high school and I think I saw it three times in the movie theaters alone. My friend Micaela and I were obsessed! I love the idea of serendipity {a fortunate accident} and love that is “meant to be.” This movie twists and turns and keeps you guessing until the end. I love the characters, the music, the settings, the dialogue. There’s also a lot of humor in the movie — Eugene Levy’s character is hilarious!

When Harry Met Sally

This movie just makes me feel so happy and warm inside. You know those movies that make you feel like everything is right with the world? When Harry Met Sally is at the top of my list. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal are fantastic together, and the dialogue and storyline are Nora Ephron at her best. One of my favorite things about this movie is the intersplicing of “real life” older couples sharing how they met. Best love quote of the movie: “At that moment, I knew. I knew the way you know about a good melon.”

You’ve Got Mail

Another Meg Ryan classic … I can’t even count the number of times I’ve watched this movie with my friend Holly. It’s just so sweet and wonderful! Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are superb together. I love the music in this movie; I love the book/reading theme; I love the backdrop of NYC. This movie is actually a remake of a Jimmy Stewart class, The Shop Around The Corner, which I have watched many times with my Gramps and would also highly recommend! The ending of both movies always gives me a grateful, goofy, teary smile–one of the best kinds of smile, in my opinion.

Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!

This is such a fun movie! I remember it came out when I was in high school, and I had a bad day at school and my sweet dad and brother took me to see this movie in the the theaters. {My mom was at work.} How lucky am I, right? Best dad and brother ever! I loved every minute of this movie that first viewing, and I love it still. This is the perfect rainy-day movie, sleepover movie, lazy Sunday movie when you just want to watch something funny and sweet. Which guy should she choose: the famous celebrity or her small-town best friend? {Okay, you might already be able to guess who she chooses, but getting there is the good part!} 🙂

The Notebook

There’s something about the love story in The Notebook that really sweeps me away. The kiss scene in the rain is amazing!!

And of course, the perfect movie to celebrate Valentine’s Day would have to be …

Valentine’s Day!

It doesn’t get much more love-packed than this! While I don’t think this movie is quite as good as its Christmas-themed inspiration Love Actually, I still really enjoy the multitude of interweaving storylines, star-studded cast, and of course the day all the action revolves around: Valentine’s Day! This movie explores many different types of love in many different relationships. Plus, my girl Taylor Swift is in it! Love her.

What are some of your favorite romantic movies? Please share in the comments section!

Hope your weekend is wonderful,
Dallas

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you might enjoy these other valentine-themed posts:
– easy + inexpensive valentine’s day cards
– an adorable owl craft project
– 6 simple sweets to make your sweetie for valentine’s day
– budget-friendly valentine’s day ideas
– hand-crafted valentine’s day decor

valentine’s week: an adorable owl craft project

Posted on February 8, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! I’ve got a little craft project to share with you today as part of Valentine’s Week. I was browsing Target the other day and this adorable little owl sewing kit caught my eye:

I scooped it up, put it together last night, and I am so pleased with the result! Look at this cute little guy:

The kit I bought had all the pieces pre-cut and the sewing holes pre-punched, so all I had to do was assemble it. But I was thinking that it would be quite easy to make from scratch {and I might do so in the future to make more of these cuties!} You could even make it simpler by making a heart shape, for example, instead of an owl.

Here’s the materials that you will need:
– red and white felt
– a needle and pink/red thread
– red & black markers for drawing on the owl’s eyes and beak
– fabric scraps or stuffing

1. On a piece of red felt, draw the shape of an owl and cut it out. Trace the shape onto another piece of red felt and cut that out two. You should have two identical owl shapes made out of red felt.

2. Cut a heart shape out of the white felt to be the owl’s “face.”

3. Sew the white heart onto one of the red felt shapes.

4. Draw two black eyes and a red triangle beak onto the white felt.

5. Sew the two red owl shapes together, leaving a hole at the top.

6. Fill the owl shape with fabric scraps or pillow stuffing.

7. Sew the top of the owl closed.

Ta da! You have a cute stuffed owl to give as a Valentine’s gift!

Hope your weekend is filled with rest, laughter and love!

Till tomorrow,
Dallas

easy + inexpensive valentine’s day cards

Posted on February 7, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner — more specifically, next week! How does the time fly by so quickly?

I have always loved Valentine’s Day because I love an excuse to make a big deal about my friends and family. I love to show them that I care. Quite simply, I LOVE love! 🙂 And Valentine’s Day is the perfect reminder to appreciate those special people in your life and let them know how much they mean to you.

Over the next week, I’ll be doing a series of “Countdown to Valentine’s Day” posts with lots of ideas on how your can make your Valentine’s Day a masterpiece–whether you’re single, dating, engaged, married, or somewhere in between!

When I was browsing the Valentine’s Day section at the grocery store a couple days ago, I looked through the adorable sets of cards available for kids to bring to their classmates and friends. I remember as a kid picking out cards with my favorite Disney princesses {I was a Belle girl all the way!} or Power Rangers {anyone else like the Yellow Ranger the best?} or, one year, Blue’s Clues. {I might have had a little crush on Steve.}

But gone are the days of simple paper fold-over cards. I had a great time surveying the shiny foil cards, the stickers, the sequins … but the price tags, whew! Those Valentines can get a little pricey, especially when you factor in candy and multiple children to buy card sets for!

That very same day, my blogging buddy Andrea over at Simple Organized Living ran a post called Two SO-Simple DIY Valentine’s Day Cards. I especially loved her idea about using Swedish fish {one of our Jude‘s fave candies} and a handmade card that reads, “I’m glad you’re in my school.” Seriously, how cute are these?

Source: http://www.simpleorganizedliving.com/2013/01/24/two-so-simple-diy-valentines-day-cards/

Another idea:

Purchase a pack of stickers featuring your child’s favorite cartoon or action figure. {You can find a great selection for a couple bucks at Toys R Us, Target, and most pharmacies or grocery stores in the card aisle.}
Pick up a pack of blank index cards.
Write out different Valentine’s messages onto the cards with bright markers.
Let your child decorate the cards with stickers.

This not only saves you money on cards, it also becomes a fun craft activity for your child. What better way to encourage empathy and compassion for others than writing kind words on Valentines?

You could also do a twist on cards by making them edible:

Bake a batch of cookies or cupcakes.
Frost them.
Before the icing hardens, press down one or two candy “Sweethearts” into the icing.
Your child gets to choose who gets what Sweetheart message.

What are some of your favorite Valentine’s Day memories? Do you have any inexpensive, handmade card ideas?

Till soon!
-Dallas

review of “the secret keeper” by kate morton

Posted on February 6, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

I mentioned on Saturday that I was happy to be curling up with a good book: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, which was the January pick of the PB Fingers book club. I’m so happy this book was chosen for the book club, because otherwise I’m not sure if I would have known about it. I had not read any books by Kate Morton before, and in general I do not read much historical fiction, but I will certainly be checking out the rest of her work now!

The Secret Keeper shifts between present-day England and WWII London during the Blitz. It took me fifty pages or so to fully settle into the book, but I grew to deeply enjoy the rich details and extensive research Kate Morton must have done to write this book. I also don’t want to spoil it, but the ending is marvelous!! I felt almost giddy with suspense and the thrill of a surprise well done.

Without trying to give too much away, here are some of my thoughts and take-aways from this book:

Reading this made me feel like I was alongside the characters, living through a war: incessant days and nights of terrible bombings, friends and family killed, men going into battle. It made me appreciate the quiet, peaceful life I enjoy. Nothing like war to put my own little daily struggles and problems into perspective. And it also made me feel very grateful to veterans and current U.S. soldiers who put their lives on the line for our country. I want to do something as part of my #yearofkindness to show my deep appreciation and gratitude.
On a craft level, reading this book as a writer, I was impressed by the way Morton shifted across characters and time periods to keep the reader in suspense. Also, by using a close third-person perspective, she was able to dip inside multiple characters’ thoughts and points of view–and the reader was left to decide how much to trust/believe the information given. {I have long been a fan of unreliable narrators ever since falling in love with The Great Gatsby in high school.}
I really enjoyed settling into the vividly drawn world of this book. Morton’s use of details and description is stunning. I want to weave in more details and setting description into my thesis novel that I am currently revising.
Historical fiction is wonderful reading! I love feeling like I am learning things about a place and time in history while also being engrossed in a story. Caring about the characters in the book also makes me feel that I get a better sense of who the people were who lived during that time.

Have any of you read The Secret Keeper? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!

Have a wonderful day!
-Dallas

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like these:
– review of Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
– review of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

year of kindness challenge: week 5

Posted on February 4, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy Monday, everyone! I’ve heard that it takes four weeks of a behavior before it really becomes a habit. Perhaps that is true, because these kindness challenges are becoming a habit — one that I am loving! It is brightening my everyday life and way of thinking. Concentrating on doing kind acts for others has made more aware of the kindnesses that are done to me. Quite simply, even after just one month, it has made me a more grateful and happy person!

This past week was my favorite yet for the #yearofkindness challenge! The Week 4 Kindness Challenge was to give hot chocolate or coffee to someone out in the cold who could use a bit of warmth. I immediately knew who I wanted to reach out to: the kind older man who works as the parking lot attendant for the local public library, which is just a couple blocks from Purdue’s campus. He reminds me a little of my Gramps and whenever I go to the library, I always wave hello to him.

Last week was a cold, snowy week in Indiana, especially on Wednesday. I woke up and thought, “Today’s the day! I’m doing my act of kindness!” During my lunch break, I walked to the Einstein Bros. that is right next to the library. I had a coupon for a free coffee or frappuccino, but I wasn’t sure if my friend would want caffeine, so I opted for a hot chocolate instead. My act of kindness was a team effort because the nice people working at Einstein Bros. let me use my coupon for a hot chocolate instead of a coffee. {Of course, I *would* have paid for the hot chocolate if need be, but I thought I might as well use the coupon that I had. It’s a frugal act of kindness!} 🙂

I felt a little nervous as I carried the warm cup of hot chocolate over to the parking garage. Doing acts of kindness can feel like putting yourself out on a limb, and I hoped he would like it.

Well, I should not have worried one bit! He smiled and waved hello when he saw me walking over. I said, “I thought you might like some hot chocolate on such a cold day” and handed him the cup, and he just lit up. It was such a neat moment! He smiled the biggest smile and said, “Thank you so much, dearie. That is so nice!”

I beamed the entire cold, snowy walk back to my office. It was the best part of my day and surely a highlight of my week!

Here are some other good things that happened in my world this past week:

I received a beautiful card from my dad telling me he loves me and is proud of me. I am incredibly lucky to have the best dad who tells me those two things all the time, but I could never get tired of hearing it! I miss him so much and it is always a wonderful surprise to see his handwriting on an envelope in my mailbox.
A waitress gave me a to-go glass of the tea I’d ordered in the restaurant so I could enjoy it on the drive home.
A kind maintenance worker came out to my apartment one evening when the heater stopped working. He not only got it working again, he also brought space heaters just in case and could not have been nicer.

Now on to the Week 5 Kindness Challenge: do something kind for a neighbor. This might mean bringing the newspaper up from their driveway to their front door, shoveling their front walk after you shovel your own, taking their trash barrels up their driveway after the trash is collected, striking up a conversation in the hallway of your apartment complex, baking cookies or making a casserole to bring over … or whatever idea strikes you!

Blog about your experiences and include your links in the comments section below, or feel free to send me an email at dallaswoodburn <AT> gmail <DOT> com.

Have a marvelous week!
-Dallas

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