Leap of Faith of this Leap Day

On this February 29, Leap Day, it is only appropriate that I write my post somewhat related to leap year so that is why I titled it Leap of Faith and ask you what leaps of faith have you taken in your life. Was it a new job you got which meant moving to a new location away from what you consider your comfort zone? Was it traveling to a new country with some friends or by yourself just to say you went there? Was it branching out and starting your own business?

Some leaps of faith I have taken in my own life are leaving my family when they lived in Japan to go to college in California,  to be that far away from my immediate family wasn't always fun. I had to grow up a little bit faster, take care of all my own business here, I couldn't call up my mom and have her make a doctor's appointment for me if I needed to go or whatever was needed.

A second leap of faith was deciding what job to take after I graduated from school. It meant staying here in California instead of going home to where my parents lived at the time in Tucson, AZ. A second leap of faith I took was going back to school for my Masters, which meant evening classes, two times a week, lots of homework on the weekends and overcoming that nagging thought of what if I can't handle it all. But I did an now I have my Masters in Public Administration and that confidence to know that I can handle it all?

*Update: I have a new leap of faith coming my way, I never mention my work on the blog but I will here now. I work for a Member of Congress and this morning he announced his retirement after serving 32 years, which means I have to be looking for a new job by the end of the year. This is entirely too scary for me...

So it is your turn, what leaps of faith have you taken in your life, did they turn out how you thought they would be and if not what did you learn from those leaps?
If you are on the edge of about to take that leap of faith, what is holding you back?
For your viewing pleasure images of leaps!
I am also linking up this post for Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday.




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Source: google.com via Dan on Pinterest












Source: flickr.com via Meg on Pinterest






Source: dumpaday.com via Meg on Pinterest









Source: pixdaus.com via Meg on Pinterest

And just because it is Leap DAy, I have to post a photo of two people playing Leap Frog, I just have to!


I hope I am not going too deep for you all this week, I know this is not my usual type of posting but it is good to change it up every once in awhile, I assure you I am not going through anything serious in my life that I am contemplating a lot. I just use things around me like my pastor's sermon series and decided to expand upon them ie my post on Monday.
Happy Leap Day everyone!







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Hometown Series - Brittany of Thoughts of a Wife in Training

 Tuesday is here and normally tomorrow would be March 1 but we got an extra day this year, do I like that, not sure. I also know what else is coming up soon Daylight Savings which is on March 11 this year. I much prefer the fall back, you won't hear me complain about any extra hour of sleep. 
Yesterday I went to fill up my car and practically had to exchange my first born child for a tank of gas. Geesh!! I'm just curious if you leave a comment, also leave me the current price for a gallon of unleaded, I want to know what the prices are people are paying around our country.  Last Thursday we visited Ashley in Raleigh and today we are headed down south to Alabama to have Brittany show us around for my From My Hometown to Yours series. 



Take it away, Brittany!

Hey guys, I’m Brittany over at Thoughts of a Wife in Training.
Thats me! :)


I currently live in the great state of Texas, but grew up in good ole southern Alabama, so I thought it would be more fitting for me to take Meg to my hometown of Daphne, Alabama.

I grew up in a small town across the bay from Mobile called Daphne. (If you have ever driven to Florida, you drove right through where I grew up.) Daphne is located on the Eastern Shore along with Fairhope, which is where my Dad, s.Mom and little brother live, so I have pretty much grown up all along the Eastern Shore.


Here is a pic of what you would find in Downtown Fairhope. It’s a little Mayberry like, which is what makes is so cute and quaint.
Lighting of the Trees

Everyday Fairhope


First stop on our trip to the Eastern Shore would be the restaurant my momma has worked in for the past 10 years, The Original Oyster House.
This is where my Momma has worked for the past 10 years.


You can get some good ole raw oysters up in here. Of course since where I grew up is on the water, there is MUCH seafood. You just can’t get away from it.
We would eat as many raw oysters as we could shovel down our throats and then head to the Bay to walk off all we just ate.
Isn't she a beauty?
The Pier sits just a mile or so from Downtown Fairhope. Its such a great place to walk around and people watch. There is a little beach and duck pond just over to the right where you can just chill and feed the ducks. Its so beautiful!
After we walk off all those calories, we could jog up to The Coffee Loft and enjoy and iced coffee. Seriously, I can’t lie to you. This place has been one of my favorite places ever since I was in high school. My friends and I spent many a Friday night at this joint, just talking and listening to good music. 




 After hours of good conversation we would spend our afternoon enjoying all the little shops around Downtown Fairhope. There are so many cute little shops and boutiques around there, you are lucky if you don’t wind up spending an entire paycheck while you are out and about.
After our shopping excursion, we would make our way down to Orange Beach. Its only about a 30 minute drive, so we would OF COURSE have to jam to some Jack Johnson with the windows down.
Once we make it to the beach, we would just bask in the glory that is this beauty:
Yeah, seriously, this is what I grew up with. Its pretty amazing, and YES, this is in Alabama. Pretty great, right?
I can usually spend an entire day, sunrise to sunset, just laying on the beach doing nothing. It’s the most relaxing thing in the world to me.
Food of course is not hard to come by in the south, so we would have to eat at two of my favorite places in the world to go.
Lulus and Big Daddy’s

Jimmy Buffets sister owns a restaurant at the Gulf called LuLus and boy do they know how to throw a party. Its so much fun to be there on a Friday night, drinkin a margarita and listening to some good music. 
Lulu's
Big Daddy’s is the restaurant that my dad works at. His best friend, Jason owns it and they know how to roll there. Its such a great family oriented place, and sits right on the water of Fish River. 
I know, you are probably all thinking that all we do in Bama is eat, shop and go to the beach. Well, you are kind of right. I remember wearing my bathing suit to school underneath my uniform just to strip it off and head to the gulf for the afternoon.

 I hope you enjoyed taking a tour around where I grew up.
Much love to you people and make sure you come and see me over at Thoughts of a Wife in Training.

Brittany

 I love your plan of showing me your hometown if I came to visit you Brittany. I like towns that are like mayberry, cute and quaint and you know a lot of people. I had no idea that Jimmy Buffet's sister was in the restaurant business too so I would definitely need to check out her restaurant since I have been to one of his restaurants before.

If anyone is interested in contributing to this series, please email me at megmouch(at)gmail(dot)com, I would love to have you!

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Salt and Light

This weekend was relaxing, had a fun time making dinner together with Sean on Friday, then Saturday was a little beauty day, getting my roots touched up. Yesterday was church and substituting for a 6th grad Sunday school class.  I have to say those 6th graders are a tough crowd and any of you bloggers who are 6th grade teachers, well teachers in general, I give you props for what you do!

I have been loving our pastor's sermon series lately, which is Salt and Light. As Christians, the Bible calls us to be salt and light to this world, to let the light of God shine through us and to be the salt of the earth. Or as my husband says he wants to be the pepper of the earth ;-) yes that is my husband for you, the jokester. 

God called me to be according to the Bible in Matthew 5:13-16 NIV  
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

To remind me to be the salt and light, I created a board on Pinterest and will work on daily learning more about God by reading His word and diving deeper into how He wants me to be the salt and light. 

Just a few images for you as a gentle reminder.














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Have Lots of Potatoes? Make Gnocchi!


Last Monday on my day off, I made homemade gnocchi. I love love gnocchi, the little pillows or clouds of potatoey goodness. In a tomato sauce, or pesto they are so light and fluffy in my mouth. I need to try browned gnocchi still. I had a bag of potatoes laying around and potato dishes were on my mind to use them up. Gnocchi use at least 5 medium size potatoes, more if they are smaller. Don't be afraid to make your own gnocchi, and it will taste way better than the store-bought version, trust. On to the recipe!

First, gather together your ingredients. 5 medium-sized Russet potatoes (weighing 2.2 lbs total), 2 egg yolks, 1 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt. 


Boil the potatoes but don't, I repeat don't, peel them before you boil them. If you can't, don't even pierce the potatoes to check to see if they are done. Piercing a potato will allow water into the potato, water is not gnocchi's best friend. You can boil an extra potato to use as your test potato if you choose. For small-sized potatoes, they will cook in about 10-15 minutes, medium sized potatoes about 20-25 minutes and large potatoes 30-35 minutes. 

When your potatoes are cooked, drain the water and let them cool. 

Once your potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them and then mash them. 

I used a ricer, if you don't have a ricer, just use a fork to mash them. Mash the potatoes enough so there are no lumps. Allow the mashed potatoes to cool to room temperature. 


In a bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, the slightly beaten egg yolks and olive oil.  

In a smaller bowl, add the flour and a little bit of salt. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the potato mixture. Flour your counter to knead the potato and flour mixture into a dough. Combine all the potato and flour together into a smooth dough but don't over knead the potato dough. 






Divide the dough into 8 parts, and roll each part of the dough out into a snake and cut the pieces about 3/4 inch.


 In boiling salted dough, drop about 12-15 pieces of gnocchi and cook them about 2 minutes, when the gnocchi are cooked, they will float to the surface.


 I have two sheet pans full of gnocchi pieces. I cooked half and froze the other half for dinners later one. Gnocchi will keep in the freezer very well up to 2 months.


 
If you have a gnocchi board, you can roll one side of the gnocchi on the board before you drop them into the water to cook. You can also roll the gnocchi along the tongs of a fork if you like the ridges.

After my gnocchi were cooked, I put them in a pan with tomato sauce and some mozzarella cheese but there are so many different sauces you can put on top of the gnocchi. Then serve, eat and enjoy!


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