Lemon scented sweatpants

PART A- Ah, sweatpants. The fabric equivalent of chicken soup and a roaring fire. Nothing feels better than coming home after a long stressful day and shedding those heels and spanx and crawling into our fav sweats. For some it may be a pair of shorts, a moomoo or a faded gown. I too love coming home, ditching anything that is confining, putting my hair up and letting it all hang out.

I leave for work after my husband and typically make it home before him too. So, on one of my normal days of doing my comfort routines when Hubby came home and kinda frowned when he saw me. I asked “what in the world is wrong with you”, in my head, but my mouth said “what’s up babe?”  What he said blew me away. Basically he said that I’m in my pj’s when he leaves for work and in my comfy clothes when he gets home. He said he feels like the rest of the world gets to see me dressed up. I got to thinking about how much sense that made. If our husbands  only see us in our comfy clothes but see other women all day long dressed to the nines, no wonder he made that face when he came home.

Now before I start getting hate mail about how they are suppose to love us no matter what, just hear me out. Reverse the situation. If everytime we were at home with them they sat around in their tighty whiteys with holes in them scratching themselves, we would probably wish they would take a little more pride when they are with us.

Both men and women should always respect their spouse/significant other enough to be presentable to them at least some of the time.

PART B-  So you finally get him to help around the house……

We all know that women are perfect. Everything we do is perfect and there is only one way of doing things- our way. This my friend is another little lesson that Hubby taught me. He actually does laundry quite a but at home. I remember the first several times I would go in behind him and fuss and grumble because he didn’t fold things the way I do. Then it occurred to me, who am I to determine the proper folding technique of a towel? Im certain a lot of women would love for their husbands to fold the towels the wrong way. I was even crazy enough to almost correct him once for the way he unloaded the dishwasher.

None of us make the rules about how the correct way to do things around the house is, unless you are Martha Stewart. SO, next time you start to tell him he is doing it wrong, remmeber the words of Dr. Phil “do you wanna be right or do y0u wanna be happy?”

 

      

Until next time- safe picking!

Tammy

by Shugary Sweets

Ingredients

For the Loaf:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 5 lemons, zested and juiced, divided

For the Simple Syrup:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup reserved lemon juice (from fresh lemons above)

For the Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp reserved lemon juice (from fresh lemons above)
• 2 Tbsp heavy cream

Instructions

Zest and juice all five lemons. Set aside.

In medium bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda together. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Beat in lemon zest and 1/4 cup lemon juice (about two lemons worth of juice). Beat in flour mixture and sour cream alternatively until fully combined. Pour into a 9″x5″ loaf pan that has been coated with baking spray (I line the bottom of mine with parchment paper as well, as an extra precaution).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 65-70 minutes. Cover with foil during the last twenty minutes to keep the top from browning too much.

Remove from oven and let sit in pan to cool about 15 minutes. Remove to wire rack.

To make simple syrup, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice (juice of about 2 lemons). Heat in a saucepan on low until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.

Poke holes using a toothpick into the top of your warm loaf. Spoon simple syrup over the top of the bread slowly until all dissolved (this makes the bread so moist)! Allow to cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, heavy cream and remaining lemon juice. Add more cream if necessary to get desired consistency. Pour over cooled loaf. Allow to set (about 15 minutes). Slice and enjoy. This bread is delicious after refrigerating as well!

Rock, paper, scissors, words

If you had to choose your weapon from rock, paper, scissors or words, which would your choose?
Remember the old saying when we were kids “sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me”? But as it turns out, words can be the most dangerous weapon of all these things.

A lemon was handed to me as a very little girl. I was probably about 8 yrs old. The rodeo had come to Townsend and it was very exciting. When it was time for the calf run I was ready. All you had to do was chase the calf and pull the red ribbon of its tail and you won $5.

Well I did win that $5. When I made it back to the stands where my dad was, he made a comment about how I ran funny. Back then my dad was a completely different person (see “is everyone addicted to something” post for more background).

I never forgot those words. When I was in middle school and high school the thought of gym class and doing any kind of sport around a crowd was paralyzing to me. I somehow made it through 4 years of high school with going to one single gym class. I would get physically ill about it.

I know to some this might sound a little extreme, but you never knew when your words can affect someone in this manner. Especially a child.  Our words should do nothing other than build their self esteem. No one has the right to degrade no matter if you are a child, adolescent or adult.

I do ride a bike now and snow ski some. But even now not hardly a day passes that the little girl in me does not hear that voice. I missed a lot that I wished I had been brave enough to try. Hopefully the pain of that can open someone else’s eyes to make them more aware of what a dangerous weapon the tongue can be.

Now, I know that my daddy is my biggest fan and he loves me no matter terrible I am at sports.

Until next time- safe picking and safe speaking

Tammy

Since this blog is all about lemons I have decided to add some ideas of what you can do with these lemons that come our way to the bottom of my post.

Please share on Facebook and Twitter.

 

43+ Uses of Lemon Essential Oil

Did you know it requires about 3,000 lemons to make one kilo of lemon essential oil? Or that lemon has been used throughout history to fight serious diseases, such as malaria, typhoid epidemics and scurvy?

187

 

http://www.sustainablebabysteps.com/lemon-essential-oil.html

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Because I am a Queen

 

First of all let me apologize that I have not written anything in a couple of weeks. I tripped and fell into my “big dark hole” as I call it. Then someone pushed an elephant in that landed on my chest. On top of that they tried to fill the hole in with a load of lemons. I ate my way through the elephant and planted the lemons in my garden and I am back.

I have this video that a friend sent me that is on my mind that I would like to talk about. I feel, as women we have become conditioned to not be able to accept a compliment. If we say we like something about ourselves we are being conceited. Think about it, if someone says “I love that dress”, most of the time, our response is something like, “this old thing” or “I got this for $10”. What happened to just simply saying thank you. I feel, for me at least, if someone compliments me and I do not brush it off that I am appearing as though I am superior, or ahead of them or more cool. However you want to word that.

Please take a moment and listen to this song from India Arie (thanks JB for turning me on to her music)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J4zOYEOW5k

The video that inspired me so much has been making its rounds on Facebook. It about how women describe themselves opposed to how other see them. Why must we be so critical of ourselves? And why does our self worth have to be based on our physical self? I have come to the point that I believe Jesus made me with big thighs and who am I to go against what Jesus wants.

Go get some tissue and take a moment to really watch this Dove video. I was squalling like a baby half way through it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

I think we, as women, should be able to say 3 things that we like about ourselves. I will go first. I like my lips, my small hands and my eye color. It is our job to teach the younger generation that beauty truly is inside, outside and in your actions, attitude and personality. The more we can teach these girls to believe in themselves, the less they will have to depend on a boy to determine their self worth.

I challenge all of you, once a day for the next week, to tell someone that they are beautiful!

Homework assignment #2, come up with 3 things about yourself that you like and leave on my comment section of this post.

Lemons come in all sizes and all sizes come from God. Love what He gave you.

Until next time- Safe Picking.

Tammy

Check out some more Dove beaYOUtiful tips
http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/Self-Esteem-Toolkit-And-Resources/default.aspx

Also check out this self-esteem test http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/interactivetests/selfesteem.php