goals & meal-plan for the week of 2/17

Posted on February 17, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Hi everyone! How is your weekend going? Mine has been fantastic — filled with lots of wonderful Mr. Jude time! Yesterday we did lots of puzzles, had a jam session on the piano, and spent an afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese. And Jude was my little helper at the grocery store, helping me pick out ingredients for my white-chicken chili, which I made last night for Mike’s family. Here he is having fun in the kitchen:

And the weekend would not be complete without some quality cuddle time on the couch!

It breaks my heart to have to say goodbye to this little guy. He is such a sweetheart. I am already looking forward to our next long visit over spring break!

Here’s how I did on my goals from this past week. I feel a lot better about the progress I am making on my thesis novel now that I have scaled back my goals and given myself a little more room to breathe:

~~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 {post is scheduled to be published this week!}
~~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~~

Here are my goals for this upcoming week:

revise up to page 90 of my thesis novel
blog about Week 7 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week
publish blog post about 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess
finish grading papers for both classes
take old financial/health documents to the bank to be shredded
knit 25 rows of the scarf I’m working on
prepare for my presentation at The Louisville Conference on Saturday

And here’s some recipes I’m planning to make this week:
– baked fish cakes
– edamame hummus
– cilantro-lime quinoa with chicken
– chopped brussel sprouts with cranberries, pecans & feta cheese
– chocolate turtle cookies

What are your goals + meal plans for this week?

This post is linked up with Menu-Plan Monday!

saturday upsides, christmas chili & les mis

Posted on December 30, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

Happy weekend, everyone! We made it back to southern California safe & sound tonight after visiting my extended family up north. It was a quick but jam-packed visit, filled with fun family time, delicious home-cooked food, and lots of laughter. Here is a pic of my brother and me with our Grandma & Grandpap {on our mom’s side}:

One recipe I forgot to share with you earlier this week is my Christmas chili! It’s the same as my California chicken chili recipe, only I added red and white kidney beans, regular chili powder instead of the “white chicken” kind, AND festive red and green bell pepper. {Which is why I call it my “Christmas chili”!} The reason I used the regular chili powder is that I couldn’t find the white chicken chili kind out here in California … but it turned out to be one of those serendipitous things, because I think this is my best chili yet!

I don’t know about you, but around this time of year I nearly always battle the post-holiday blues. It’s true: I love Christmas! I love the joy and excitement of the season of giving. I love being home with my family. I love not having to worry about the normal day-to-day stresses of school and work. I love baking cookies and special holiday treats. I love watching Christmas movies with my Gramps. I love small things, like the special flavors of Hershey’s kisses and chai lattes at Starbucks. {Greg snapped a picture of me on his smartphone at Starbucks, enjoying a gingerbread chai … mmmmm.}

I always get a little sad when the holidays are over. Does anyone else feel the same?

Then I went to see “Les Miserables” with my mom, aunts and cousin Arianna yesterday afternoon. I had never seen the musical before and did not know the story at all. It was beautiful. I loved the music and thought the film was very well-done. {Best supporting actress: Anne Hathaway gets my vote!}

And my goodness, what an emotional story that really makes you feel grateful for what you have. I am SO lucky to have a roof over my head, enough food to eat, a warm bed, a loving and healthy family. Those are my Saturday Upsides every week!

And another upside? Having people to miss is a blessing because it means you have people to love!

What are your upsides this weekend?

goals through the end of the year

Posted on December 27, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

This holiday weekend was such a whirlwind that I forgot to post my goals on Sunday! Here’s how I did last week:

~~throw a terrific bridal shower for my cousin Amanda~~ {see my recap post about it here}
~~take cookies and holiday cards to the local nursing home~~ {here’s my “saturday upsides” post about that joyful experience}
read The Zero by Jess Walter {started this but didn’t finish it yet}
~~watch Christmas movies with Gramps~~
finish getting email inbox and computer desktop cleaned out and organized {started this, still have a couple things to do to finish up}
write goals for the upcoming year {need to finish this still!}
work on short play to submit to festival {completely didn’t have time for this at all}

And here they are, a few days late, my goals through the end of the year:

revise and update calendar and syllabus for the upcoming semester
read & respond to all the workshop stories for the Key West conference
finish getting email inbox and computer desktop cleaned out and organized
write goals for the upcoming year
work on short play to submit to festival
finish reading The Zero by Jess Walter
prepare for my new “Act of Kindness” blog initiative for the upcoming year!

What are your goals for the rest of the year? Feel free to share in the comments below!

what i wore on christmas

Posted on December 26, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

Wow, Christmas seemed to fly by especially fast this year! It was a whirlwind! Writing camp, dinner with friends, my brother’s birthday, coffee with my good friend Erica, my cousin’s bridal shower, Christmas Eve with our extended family, Christmas Day with more family … and now we’re leaving for a road trip up to the Bay Area to see my extended family on my mom’s side. I haven’t seen my grandparents since my brother’s graduation this past summer, and rest of my aunts, uncles, and cousins since last Christmas, and I can’t wait to hug them all and catch up on everything!

So I might be a little MIA the next few days … but I’ll try to get some recipes from my grandma, who is an AMAZING cook, to share with you on here! 🙂

I think my favorite part about Christmas is the big breakfast we cook in my family. We are not usually big breakfast eaters, so it always feels like a treat!

This year my mom took care of the turkey bacon and scrambled eggs while I manned the waffle iron and the boys set the table.

YUM!

Today I’m linking up with Camp Patton to share “What I wore on Christmas” …

I am loving this polka-dot scarf my friend Erica gave me for Christmas {I think she got it from Target} so I decided to make it the centerpiece of my outfit! I paired it with a simple green top, white undershirt, dark skinnies, and my fave brown boots!

I only just managed to get these pictures taken before a certain someone wanted in on the photo fun:

… then at the last minute he decided to be camera-shy and not show his adorable doggy face. Oh, Murray!

I hope your Christmas was filled with love, joy, laughter, family and good food!

Thanks for taking the time to visit this blog … it means so much to me!

With love,
Dallas

goals for the week of 12/16

Posted on December 16, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

Wow, this week flew by! Mike is visiting and it has been so fun to have him here with my family. We’ve seen The Nutcracker, played lots of pinball, seen a comedy show, watched some movies, eaten lunch at some of our favorite Ventura spots {hello, Snapper Jack’s and Nature’s Grill!} and even spent a day at my alma mater USC.

This week I also was relieved to get my grades submitted, two big applications mailed, and taught another super fun Winter Writing Camp through my organization Write On!

Here’s how I did on my other goals this week:

~~send out newsletter about book drive and writing camp~~
~~finish & send the remaining post-grad applications~~
read The Zero by Jess Walter {instead I read through a bunch of old New Yorkers I hadn’t had time to read during the school year … I’ll get to The Zero this week!}
watch Christmas movies with Gramps {we’ve got this on the calendar for the upcoming week}
~~address and mail Christmas cards~~
get email inbox and computer desktop cleaned out and organized {started this but did not finish it all the way}

And here are my goals for this upcoming week:

throw a terrific bridal shower for my cousin Amanda
take cookies and holiday cards to the local nursing home
read The Zero by Jess Walter
watch Christmas movies with Gramps
finish getting email inbox and computer desktop cleaned out and organized
write goals for the upcoming year
work on short play to submit to festival

What are your goals for the week? Feel free to share in the comments below!

saturday upsides: grieving

Posted on December 15, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

After the horrific shooting that happened yesterday in Connecticut, it seems difficult {or maybe even trite} to write about an “upside” today in my life. Then again, maybe it’s more necessary today than ever. I thought of Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project {review still coming soon on here, I promise!} and her recurring question/nagging fear: “Who am I to talk about happiness when everything in my life is fine?”

Grieving the tragedy yesterday, while also hugging my family close and thanking God for their safety and health and all the love I am so blessed to have in my life, I remembered one of the responses Rubin received on her blog: “Remembering that joy exists is tough when you’ve been traumatized. Joy is a big concept and utterly unbelievable when we are in the depths of catastrophe. But happiness … happiness is more accessible. We can be miserable and then find ourselves laughing, even if just for a few seconds. It reaffirms the will to live, and from there we can branch out. Happiness, and the belief we have in it, is the foundation for survival.”

Tragedies like the Connecticut shooting make us pause in the hectic flurry of everyday life and reflect on what’s important. For me, these are the questions running through my head:

How can I give more to others?
How can I spend more time doing what I truly love?
How can I bring joy to those around me?
How can I remember and refocus on what truly matters?
How can I use my blessings to make a difference for others?

I’ll be pondering these questions more in the coming weeks. I already have some ideas that I am hoping to implement and share with you here on this blog, and start a conversation with you about your own reflections. What matters to you? What do you hold most important in your life?

With love and prayers for you and your family,
-Dallas

my aunt elaine’s peanut butter blossoms

Posted on December 14, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

I have a delicious holiday cookie recipe to share with you today! My mom makes these every holiday season and they are always one of my favorite treats. You could make them any time of year, but in my family they are a special sign of Christmas!

I made these as a treat for my students for the last day of class. They are a classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate — what could be better? I like that they look special and pretty yet are very simple to make. I even health-i-fied my aunt’s recipe a little bit by cutting down on the sugar and substituting whole-wheat flour for regular white flour, and they turned out just as delectable as I remembered.

Enjoy! 🙂

aunt elaine’s peanut butter blossoms

– 1/3 cup sugar
– 1/3 cup brown sugar
– 1/2 cup butter
– 1/2 cup peanut butter
– 1 egg
– 2 tbsp milk {I used soy milk}
– 2 tsp vanilla
– 1 & 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
– 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 25 Hershey’s kisses {I used the dark chocolate variety!}
– extra 1/4 cup or so of sugar for rolling the dough in before baking

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Blend in peanut butter and milk.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir together.

5. Spread a thin layer of sugar in the bottom of a shallow dish {a pie pan is perfect!}

6. Shape teaspoonfuls of dough into small balls and roll them around in the sugar until they are evenly coated. Place them onto the cookie sheet, evenly spaced.

7. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until cookies are golden brown and cracked open and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

8. While cookies are baking, unwrap the Hershey’s kisses so they are ready to go when cookies come out of the oven!

9. When cookies are still warm, place a Hershey’s kiss in the center of each cookie, gently pressing down to attach the chocolate to the cookie as it cools.

What are some of your favorite holiday cookie recipes?

Happy Friday!
-Dallas

You might also enjoy these holiday recipes:

– white chocolate m&m pretzels
– chocolate-covered popcorn
– perfect pumpkin pie

homemade christmas gifts

Posted on December 13, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

When I think back on my favorite gifts I’ve ever received, they are not the most expensive or glamorous, but the most thoughtful. Many of them are homemade: the blue-jean quilt sewn by my grandmother and passed down to me; the handwritten letters my dad writes for me on each birthday; the paintings made for me by my brother. My other most treasured gifts are not “things” at all but experiences: the “girls trips” I’ve taken with my mom; the Taylor Swift concerts I’ve been to with my friend Holly; the time my Gramps took me on a tour of the small Ohio town of his boyhood; the trip to Ireland I took with my brother to explore our family’s Irish roots.

This holiday season, I am approaching gift-giving not as a money-draining, stressful obligation, but instead as a fun challenge. How can I show all of the people I care about how much I care about them? How can I be thoughtful and proactive in gift-giving without breaking the bank?

My answer: homemade, personal gifts.

I mentioned in a post last week about my quest to upcycle gift containers rather than waste money on brand-new bags and boxes. Not only is this good for my wallet, it’s also good for the environment — AND it seems more thoughtful and personal, to boot!

One of my favorite homemade gifts to make for loved ones is hand-knitted scarves. My junior year of college, I studied abroad in England and my friends Janet & Lauren taught me how to knit. Ever since then, I constantly have some sort of knitting project going. {It’s a great project to do while watching TV or on long car rides!} My favorite thing to make is scarves because they are straightforward, versatile, and get a lot of use. With each stitch, I love thinking of the recipient wearing the scarf and staying warm during a cold winter day.

One Christmas, I made a “scarlet and gray” spirited scarf for my Gramps to wear to cheer on his beloved Ohio State football team. It was one of the first scarves I ever made and I worked on it painstakingly for months, trying to make my rows even and neat. I was so proud of myself when the scarf was completed. And my Gramps’s surprised smile upon opening the gift is one of my favorite Christmas memories!

Here are some good online tutorials for how to knit a scarf:

– http://www.wikihow.com/Knit-a-Scarf
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqeG05HFP1E
– http://www.ehow.com/video_12221356_knit-scarf-beginner.html

I also love to give homemade baked goods as gifts. I mean, think about it: even “the person who has everything” could appreciate a nice big batch of still-warm-from-the-oven brownies, right? 😉 To me, homemade food gifts carry the message of comfort, delight, and indulgence. One year, Holly mailed me a batch of cookies all the way across the country and they made me feel SO special and loved — I swear those were the most delicious cookies I’ve ever eaten!

Here’s a wrap-up of some of my favorite recipes for delicious holiday treats that would also make great gifts:

– holiday white chocolate pretzels
– butterscotch pudding cookies
– chocolate-covered popcorn
– pumpkin-oatmeal cookies
– red velvet cupcakes with coconut cream-cheese frosting
– rice krispies treats with m&ms

Making someone a homemade gift is almost like prayer: as you work on the gift, you spend time thinking good thoughts about the person and how much you care about them and how lucky you are to have them in your life. I love homemade gifts because, to me, they are the ultimate testament to the warmth, joy, gratitude and selflessness of the holiday season.

Are you making any homemade gifts this year? What are some of your favorite gifts you’ve ever received?

what I wore to see “the nutcracker”

Posted on December 10, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

Happy Monday, everyone! It is a marvelous Monday for me because I am back home soaking up time with my family! When I am with them, I just feel so joyful and comforted. I love my family!

Yesterday afternoon my mom, Mike and I went to see a local ballet production of “The Nutcracker.” It is a tradition for my mom and me to see it together every year, and it was really nice to have Mike come along this year!

The weather in Ventura has been beautiful and sunny — a welcome relief from the cold weather in Indiana — so I decided to take advantage of this and wear a skirt, tights, a short-sleeved blouse and light sweater.

{The artwork in the background of this picture is a self-portrait done by my talented brother! Isn’t it great?}

You can’t quite see my shoes in this picture, but they are the same ones I wore to Thanksgiving dinner.

The ballet was terrific as always. Such a talented group of dancers! They amaze me with their poise and grace. And I love the music! It really gets me into the holiday spirit.

Afterwards, we came home and I made healthy turkey enchiladas for dinner. My Gramps joined us, and it was so wonderful to see him!

Hope your week is off to a lovely start! What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

xoxo,
Dallas

saturday upsides: reunited with my fam!

Posted on December 8, 2012 by dallaswoodburn

Happy Saturday, everyone! I am currently writing this late on Friday night from Mike’s parents’ house in the Chicago suburbs, but by the time you read this I will likely be in an airplane en route to Burbank, California, to be reunited with my family for the holidays!

I am SO excited to see them. I feel like my child-self on Christmas Eve, unable to fall asleep. I do love my life at Purdue, but it can be hard being so far away from my family. We have always been extremely close and though I do talk to them every day, as our time apart grows I find myself missing their physical presence more and more — I crave a hug from my mom; I want to see my brother’s mischievous-eyed smile; I really want to hear my dad’s laugh. I absolutely cannot wait to hug all of them in a matter of hours!

So my Saturday Upsides today, of course, is that I get to see my family. Their love and support is such a blessing in my life!

I was thinking today, as I scurried around town trying to get done what felt like the hundreds of little errands and tasks to complete in preparation for my trip, that traveling is like a lot of things in life: you have to put in a bunch of work to get to the reward. It made me think of one of my favorite quotes by John Wooden: “The journey is better than the inn.” Now, I’m not saying that waiting in line at the Post Office is better than the moment I step out into baggage claim and see my family’s smiling faces. But instead of letting stress get the best of me, I tried to appreciate the rituals of errands and packing and preparing for my trip back home as part of the journey itself. Switching up my mindset made my hectic day a whole lot more enjoyable!

What are the upsides of your lovely Saturday? Anyone else have de-stressing pre-travel tips to share?

-Dallas

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