Loquacious Lady

I realize that what I’m about to say might open up a huge can of worms. But I feel like saying it anyway. Here goes.

I love Glee.

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I think it’s a great show, fun to watch, loaded with talented people, and crammed with great songs. I don’t even care that they push every liberal argument out there. I wouldn’t care if they pushed every conservative argument out there. I’m not swayed from my own opinions by a tv show, and I enjoy the rest of it enough to overlook political agendas or personal opinions seeping through the themes of each episode.

That said, there is one episode that bothers me.

Let me ask you a question: If a single woman had a daughter in high school and a single man had a son in high school, and these two parents decided to move in together, would they make the teenage daughter share a room and bathroom with the teenage son?

What if the teen boy had a crush on the teen girl?

What if he orchestrated the parents getting together specifically because he considered himself in love with this girl and wanted her and her mom to move in so he could share a room with her?

What if the daughter first said she didn’t want to move out of her house, then said she didn’t want to move into that boy’s room, but was told to deal with it for a while until they could afford to add on to the house?

What if when she finally had had enough and called out the boy on his intentions and had a bit of a temper tantrum, the boy’s dad overheard and yelled at the girl and kicked her out of the house?

Can we all accept that this teen girl has been screwed over? I can.

I think it’s total crap. The boy had an ulterior motive all along. He got his way. She protested. She was ignored. When she got mad, she got in trouble- not just in trouble but kicked out with no where to go. And the boy was made to look like the victim. It’s not fair, and we can all see that.

The exact same scenario that I mentioned above is what happened in Glee last season, except that a boy, Kurt, had a crush on another boy, Finn who is straight. So, I think it’s fair to say that when I saw the clip below, though it was between two boys, I felt rankled for Finn.

He did throw out the word “fag” a couple of times, and I do take issue with that. Even if you find being gay wrong, it doesn’t give you the right to be demeaning and horrid to someone who is gay. And I absolutely think that Kurt’s dad had the right to be upset about Finn using that word. I have some friends who are gay and would be upset to find out someone talked to them like that, for sure.

HOWEVER. I do NOT feel like this was a fair situation. Finn would most likely never have said anything so insulting if he hadn’t been forced to live with someone who openly had feelings for him, flirted with him, wanted people to think they were dating. If it were two kids of the opposite sex, the parents would have been considerate of this. But just because they’re boys, Finn was expected to be okay with it.

In a world that calls for equality for all and gay rights, I can’t fathom why a show pushing those equal rights would act like Finn and Kurt’s situation shouldn’t have been treated the same way as it would have for two teens of the opposite sex.

Or why Finn shouldn’t get to defend himself.

Or why the parents didn’t even try to understand that maybe, just maybe, Kurt had pushed Finn past all reasonable limits by manipulating this situation into being.

There was no equality in this situation. What Finn said was wrong. But what Kurt did was wrong too, and, in my opinion, far more inconsiderate seeing as it had Finn moved completely out of his house and into a room with someone against his will.

It’s a show. It didn’t really happen. I get that. But in the end? Finn puts on a dress and stands up to bullies to show Kurt that he’s sorry.

What the what?

He never explains himself to the parents. Never gets an apology from Kurt. Finn apologizes for what he said, but he’s never heard out and never apologized to for Kurt’s part in this or for Kurt’s dad not hearing him out at all.

It’s all Finn’s fault, apparently, no matter how he was treated, because Kurt is gay. I’m not anti-gays. I’m not. But I think absolving anyone from their part in a bad situation for any reason (race, sexual preference, income bracket, etc.) is wrong and very unfair. And that’s when I think a show has taken an agenda too far.

What do you think?

(I should state that if there is any really nasty stuff said to anyone in the comments, or any cussing I will remove it. I know this can be a sensitive issue, but let’s be respectful, please.)

~Meghan

It’s officially fall, and while it’s still in the 80′s during the day here in Georgia, at least it’s cool in the mornings and evenings now. Something that I really wanted to do this year was to carve pumpkins for our house- craft pumpkins.

Last year, I saw that on of my friends, Megan, had the cutest carved craft pumpkins. She told me that her mom made them for her and her hubby, Ed. She could do monograms, school mascots, anything you could do on a regular pumpkin. I thought it was such a great idea since you can use them year after year, and since they are a lot less messy than a real pumpkin.

So, I set out to find and buy the pumpkins and something to carve them with. Most craft stores have them, so I headed to Michael’s. I asked the lady at the checkout if she thought an X-Acto knife would be enough to carve them. She said that it probably would but that they sell a thing that you plug in, allow to heat up, and then it just cuts through the craft pumpkins like butter.

I wanted it.

“How much is it?” I asked. “About $20, I think,” replied the kind lady.

Darn it. The X-Acto knife and extra blades together were less than half that when I used my coupon. So I decided to stick with elbow grease. Maybe next year I’ll get the more fun tool for this. But I wanted you to know about it in case you decide you would rather do that.

So, here’s how I did my carving.

First, I took inventory of my pumpkins. (ps- I love how the craft pumpkins are imperfect, making them look more realistic.)

I decided to carve up the big, white pumpkin for now.

Then, I found a font I liked of the letter “M” for McFarlin (and “L” because I’m doing this for a friend of mine also), and I printed it in two different sizes to compare.

Then I prayed that I wouldn’t slice my hand open with the knife. It was a very sharp blade, and I’m in no hurry to repeat history.

Then, I forgot to take anymore pictures of the actual process. But what I did was pick the font size I liked, taped that piece of paper to the pumpkin, and traced the outline with the knife. The paper ripped up as I cut,so I might actually cut out the letter and tape just it to the pumpkin for my next one.

I broke off pieces that were coming off anyway a bit at a time, as I went along. When I got done, I thought it looked pretty rough. I decided to go back over the rough parts with the knife, carving off any rough bits and smoothing it out. This helped a lot.

I decided to leave the pumpkin inside for now, since it was late, and I didn’t have time to play with arrangements outside. To put the candle in, I cut a hole out of the bottom (I didn’t want to cut up the top). I actually found it easier to leave the hole there with the candle just sitting on the table instead of trying to put that piece back on with the candle on top of it.

Here it is in our foyer.

And here it is with the lights off.

Two things to consider if you choose a cursive-like font: 1) it might look like it’s a bit lopsided because of the italicized font so if that bothers you, don’t go for a cursive type of font, and 2) make sure you pick a font with no loops since the middle of the loop will also get cut out, leaving a huge hole instead of a pretty loop.

Also, if you’re the kind of person who has to have everything JUST SO…well, you might just need to spring for the heated tool that was made for this. My “m” is not exactly like the one I printed. Specifically, the far right of it is way thicker than it should have been. But I can live with that.

I didn’t cut myself. Not even a nick, Thank the Lord. So I’m happy, even if my pumpkin is slightly different than planned.

~Meghan

ps- Craft pumpkins ARE flammable. So, even though I used a candle here, I went out and bought a battery operated “flameless” candle later, and that’s what’s in my craft pumpkin now. Don’t burn your house down!

I love banana bread. It’s so yummy. A few years back, I received a Paula Deen cookbook, and in it, I found the best banana bread recipe ever. It’s just SO moist and delicious; I had to share it with y’all.

You must bake this bread. Unless you’re allergic to bananas. I had a roommate in college who was allergic to bananas. (Hi, Claire! Don’t make this.)

It’s not super good for you, but I try to justify it by the fact that it has bananas in it. Now the thing that makes it extra especially awesome is something that I added to the recipe on my own: a coating of sugar. (I know, how did I come up with that genius twist?) Look at the picture above, and you will see some of the sugar that didn’t stick to the bread still sanding the side of the pan.

After you grease the pan (preferably with butter), sprinkle a healthy coating of sugar all over it. After you pour in the batter, sprinkle more sugar on top. This way, when the crust bakes, it will be coated with sugary goodness. It makes a difference, trust me. Just do it. You can thank me later. In the picture above, you’ll see sugar sticking to the crust of the bread.

Here’s how the bread looks straight out of the oven and cut in half. It is so good.

So good, in fact, that I just had to pinch off a bite. Or two. Lucky for me, Tom doesn’t like banana bread.

And I doubled the recipe, so I have an extra loaf made, wrapped, and in the freezer just waiting for me to devour it. I will include the regular recipe below, but you can easily double it, like I did. Also, you don’t even need a mixer to make this- just some muscle for stirring with a wooden spoon. Easy-peasy.

Paula Deen’s Banana Bread

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar; mix well. Add the salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and bananas, and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 50 minutes.

Enjoy!!
~Meghan

Last Friday I watched Mamma Mia for the first time while Will was taking a nap. I will go ahead and admit I was already a fan of some ABBA music before seeing that movie. I know a lot of people who think ABBA is lame, but I think they had such fun music.

One song I didn’t know by ABBA, however, was Thank You For The Music. I’ve heard the title before but never the actual song. As the credits rolled on the movie, I left it on to hear the music while editing pictures on my laptop. When Amanda Seyfried’s voice rang out with this song, I stopped what I was doing to listen.

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I loved the lyrics of this song. I’m way to nervous (and probably not talented enough) to do solos, but I absolutely LOVE to sing. I sing all the time. Half the time when I talk to Tom I switch from speech to song when finishing a sentence. I just do it without even realizing it because it seems to be hardwired into me.

My mom always said to me that I sang before I could talk. And she and my sister laugh at me (and with me) because, they never had to call out my name to find the changing room I’d be in at a store at the mall, because if there was music playing, they could just look for the dancing feet.

These were my favorite lyrics from it:

Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk
But I often wonder, how did it all start?
Who found out that nothing could capture a heart
Like a melody can?
Well, whoever it was, I’m a fan

What a joy, what a life, what a chance!

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

I think Amanda Seyfried has a great voice. So rich and sweet sounding. But I wanted to hear what the original sounded like as well, so heard a quick clip on iTunes. Gotta say, I liked her version better. I tend to do that though- like whatever version of a song I hear first, even if it’s a cover of the original. There are few exceptions.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think of her cover or just of the song in general. And are you a fan of ABBA?

I’m not really a big coffee drinker, so it might seem like this is an odd choice for a Friday Favorite. But there’s more to a place than just the drinks, so let’s dive in!

Cafenineteen is a cafe (you probably caught that already) located in Atlantic Station in Atlanta, Georgia, near (across from) the movie theater.  Tom and I recently met some friends in Atlantic Station to grab a bite to eat and catch a movie. We finished our meal so early that we had time to kill, and since it was a late night movie, they voted we go hang out where there was caffeine on the menu.

This led us to cafenineteen. People were sitting indoors and outside, music was playing, and the interior looked cool, so we headed in.

While everyone else was checking out the drinks menu, I was feasting my eyes on the desserts.

Tom and our three friends decided that they each wanted to get an espresso. A girl came and took our order at our table and brought them back some pretty little drinks.

They all said they thought their drinks were great, so if you love caffeinated drinks, you should check this place out.  Cafenineteen serves Illy coffee as their brand of choice.

I was so full from dinner that I didn’t get dessert, but looking back at the pictures, I’m thinking that next time I’m in Atlantic Station, I’ll be swinging by cafenineteen to pick up something sweet.

As it was, I was too distracted by the great conversation to care. And by the ambiance of the cafe. I loved this glowing chandelier.

It was definitely rather dark inside at night, but I liked the low lighting, the long drapes to the ground by the windows, and the intimate atmosphere.

They also had a tv with sports on, which you can see reflected in the windows. So if you need your team on tv, this place has you covered. I noticed some people taking advantage of the wireless connection as they worked on their laptops and sipped coffees. Most people were there with someone else or in a group.

Cafenineteen also offers alcoholic beverages and a menu for lunch and breakfast. If I ate out a lot and lived nearby, this would probably be an often-visited spot for me.

As it is, I live in Suwanee, and that’s quite a drive for breakfast. So y’all can enjoy this spot for me! If you’re in Atlantic Station and get a coffee craving or need to feed your sweet tooth, swing by cafenineteen.

You can visit cafenineteen at 232 19th St Suite 7100, Atlanta, GA.

Enjoy!
~Meghan

Tom has some magical pull on children. They flock to him. They adore him.

He’s great with kids, but it’s something more than that. It’s not just that he plays with them or that he pays attention to them when they talk to him. I know it’s more because as soon as any of my nephew or nieces could speak, “Tom” was one of the first aunts’ or uncles’ names they learned.

In fact, I cease to exist to them from about ten months of age until about three years. Yes, they let me hold them, play with them, love on them. Yes, they respond to me. But I literally could be a total stranger when compared to Tom, even though I am the one they are related to by blood.

When Tyler was really little, he was so used to seeing me and Tom together that if I walked into the room on my own, Tyler would burst into tears and say, “But..where’s Toooom???” It did great things for my self-esteem, lemme tell ya.

After Madeline was born and grew old enough to show she favored Tom as well, it became something of a joke in our family. And it was repeated for a time with Anna Kate.

Now I’m seeing it with Violet as well. When I was over at their house last Friday, Lisa and I were pointing to different members of our family in a picture and asking Violet to name them. When Lisa pointed to me, this sweet little girl, sitting in my lap, was silent for a moment. Then she looked at who was next to me in the picture and said, “TOM!”

What.

Lisa and I just looked at each other and burst into laughter. It’s happening again.

But of all the nephews and nieces, the one who still is just in love with her uncle the most is definitely Madeline.

They’re buds. Always have been. She has him wrapped around her little finger.

He loves all of our nephews and nieces, but she has always shown a definite love for her Uncle Tom that hasn’t evened out a bit. He dreads the day she gets old enough that “it’s not cool” to show that you love your family. I don’t think that day will come for her. She’s very sweet and always finds a lap to crawl into and cuddle up. I don’t think her Uncle Tom will ever see her finding him embarrassing.

When we were engaged, she was very excited about being our flower girl and having a pretty dress. She said to me and to Lisa that at the reception, “Tom will dance me around the room.” And I said, “Who will I dance with, Madeline?” I think she said I could dance with Tyler. I’m lucky she didn’t hog-tie me in the back of the church and try to marry him herself. I laugh just remembering this next picture.

She was none to happy when her dance with Tom was interrupted. The band wanted us to do something, and he had to end their dance early. You can see for yourself how she felt about that.

But she’s not so little anymore.

This December, she’ll be 6 years old. I can’t believe how much she’s grown.

Lisa, Jonathan, and the kids have all moved much closer to where we live, and I think we’ve seen them more since May than we had during the entire year before. We love it.

And I think I know at least one other person who doesn’t mind living close by either.

~Meghan

What I’m about to show you may be disturbing. Viewer discretion advised. Especially if messiness causes your brain to seize up, your blood to race, and your adrenaline to kick into overdrive.

I think it’s safe to say that organization is not my strong point.

It doesn’t come naturally to me.

I could fit in in a pigpen rather well.

That, my friends, is supposed to be my desk. The Force of denial is strong with this one.

Denial, you ask?

Yes, denial.

Here’s how this works: I am in a rush and already have about 4 things going on on top of my desk, so as I run out the door, I put that thing I need to get to later on top of the four other projects on the desk.

Later, Tom sees something in the mail for me and sets it on my desk.

I finish a book and set it on my desk.

I write a letter and set the pack of notecards on my desk.

I get codes to enter into mycokerewards, and the codes go on my desk.

I see that the dogs are scared of the storm, so I set an old blanket on my chair for them to sit in. Then I set more stuff there later- jackets, a large picture in a tube, cables.

Something comes from shutterfly and lands on my desk.

I buy organizational baskets with good intentions and leave them collecting junk on my desk.

And the stuff from the desk is about to overflow, so it also gets to sit on the floor around the desk.

And then…

I look at my desk and office space, and I see not junk, not stuff to sort through, but time. Time I need to use on so many other things being spent instead on cleaning my desk. I feel guilt that we bought this desk that I love and am not using but instead am sitting with my laptop on the couch. I feel horror that the scrapbook I need to finish for my sister is suffocating in the background of this chaos.

I stop going into the office. Because if I can’t see the desk, I don’t have to deal with it.

That is denial, Meghan-style.

It’s embarrassing but true. What always happens though, is that it gets so bad that even I can’t stand it anymore, and I HAVE to do something about it.

First, I have to sort the stuff I need from the stuff that is no longer useful thanks to how long it has been sitting there collecting dust. I put the stuff I don’t want anymore in the trash. My dogs are bewildered. “Mom? Organizing? Desk? How do these things go together? I am so confused! The world has gone mad!”

Then I take all the stuff I want to keep but need to sort through and put it on Tom’s desk in the meantime. His desk that was super organized and pristine until I started working on my desk.

Just for kicks, I leave my stuff there and call him into the office and tell him that I’ve finished the oranization and that it looks great. He half-laughs, half-moans “nooooo!” I laugh at him and I tell him that I will have his desk back to normal soon.

And when I’m done, I can actually SEE my desk again. Amazing. And there are even little labels I typed up for each of the green bins, so I know what to put where. Didn’t know I had it in me, did ya?

And the floor! There’s a floor under there!

“Hey look, Liam, there is carpet in here! It’s awesome! Let’s shed fur all over it!”

And, okay, yes, there is still a huge Victoria’s Secret bag full of books on the floor, but my shelves are full. You are welcome to come build me some new bookshelves, though!

I’m not exactly sure what’s been going on, but lately I’ve been on an organizing frenzy. I unpacked Will’s room when they moved as well as about 80% of their kitchen and dining room. I even enjoyed doing that. And before I cleaned my desk, I had tackled the pantry. Weeks before, in fact. I took everything out, sorted it into bins, and put it all back according to where I needed stuff. I’ll try to show you, though it was hard to take pictures of shelves in such a small room.

Far left wall: Hooks for cleaning stuff and for aprons. I love aprons and own many. Plus a step ladder because I am short, people. Ps-the hooks have been there for over a year, so nothing new, but I love them.

Straight ahead when you walk-in, on the bottom:

Straight ahead when you walk-in, at eye level and above:

To the right when you walk in, from the top:

To the right when you walk in, in the middle:

To the right when you walk in, on the bottom:

That’s our doggy central in the corner. It has some toys, medicines, treats, leashes, baggies, brushes, etc. If I leave the pantry door open, one of the pups will try to quietly sneak in and rummage around for a treat when I’m not looking. Usually I sneak up behind them and say their name. It’s hilarious to watch them jump straight up then back out of the pantry really fast.

For the record, having these bins to keep everything organized has made it easy to STAY organized. The thing is, I like being orderly, I just don’t usually enjoy the process of cleaning and organizing.

And that is why my mom used to tell me that no man would ever marry me if I couldn’t figure out how to keep a place clean. Apparently, you have to pass an organizational test before men will propose.

Just kidding, mom. Even though you did say that first part.

I had a plan, see? No boys were allowed in my room (except family members), so Tom could never see how bad my room looked until he would come hang out at my apartment in college. And by then, we had talked about marriage. It was a done deal.

Actually, there was no plan other than, “it’s not 1950, so you can help me do the cleaning when we get married.” (He does do some of the cleaning!)

And Tom used to get a little nervous about how messy our house would be when we got married because we are total opposites in the OCD organization category. But, to both our surprise, we’ve found that I get totally stressed out when people come to our house if it’s not clean. I’m trying to learn to just keep it clean so that I don’t care, but that’s hard to do with two shedding dogs and long work days away from the house.

Also, I’m more likely to care about the overall house being in disarray in general and am more likely to clean it. Just not my desk.

My desk belongs to me. It is not shared space, but private territory. And as such, it falls into the world of clutter every now and then.

It’s not the end of the world; I’ll clean it eventually! And I’ll even let you look at pictures of how messy I am and how much of a struggle organization is for me.

Just don’t have a heart attack.

~Meghan

Most days I get to work before 8AM and don’t get off work until about 6pm.

It’s a long workday.

If I weren’t able to load Will up in the car and get out to do stuff sometimes, I probably would have lost my sanity long ago. As it is, I’ve taken him on errands, to different places for walks, to the pool, to my brother’s house to play with my nephew and nieces, to my house, and even to his doctor appointments.

Add to that list: Mothers’ Morning Out at a church. I haven’t had to actually take him there, yet, but I’ve picked him up each time. He’s been going for two weeks now, on Monday mornings. I love MMO because I get to run errands (harder to do with a baby when you’re juggling coupons), clean the house, do laundry, etc. and also to sleep in a little bit.

The downside of MMO is that Will’s naps get all out of whack on Mondays. And that gets Will all out of whack.

So as I watched Will yesterday, and my allergies kicked up (way to go forgetting that Zyrtec yesterday, Meghan), and my head felt like it was being crushed, and a pain started to push all the way through my right eyeball, I thought, “this is not the time to be watching a cranky, tired, one-year-old.” Because, you see, you don’t just call-in sick or go home early when someone else will have to leave their job for the day as a result. I only call in sick when I’m literally too sick to leave bed.

And so, as the headache raged on, and I watched Will lay down on the floor and kick his legs, screaming and crying, in frustration with me because I wouldn’t hold him in my arms while I was using the bathroom, I was surprised to feel some calmness come over me and some of the fruits of the spirit just pop into my head. I don’t even have those verses memorized (though maybe I should, now), but a surprising amount of those “fruits” just came to me. God knew I needed it.

And I thought about how, before as a teacher and now as a nanny, I’ve really had to work on my response when kids are just having a rough day. I know anyone can relate to this because it’s just as hard to respond well to adults who take out their bad day on you. And parents, I can only imagine that you have to draw on this daily for help.

So, I flushed the toilet, washed my hands, and went to pick up Will. And as I did, I prayed, “Lord, please give me peace because I know his attitude will pass, kindness when I don’t feel like it, patience when I’ve had enough already, and gentleness when I feel like being harsh. And please make me slow to anger, responding in love. Help me to love him the way I know his parents want me to love him, the way I do when he’s being normal and easy.”

I left off some of the “fruits,” and pulled from different verses in the Bible. But it doesn’t matter.

It helped.

My headache didn’t go away. He didn’t magically quit throwing tantrums over every little thing. But my attitude was completely altered. And that gave me the ability to respond sweetly, firmly when needed, but not angry, impatient, fed up.

Have you had a time where you’ve had to pray for help responding to people at work or at home?

~Meghan

I took Will over to Jonathan and Lisa’s house on Friday to play with my nephew and nieces and so that I could hang out with Lisa some also. I had a great time catching up with Lisa, and I always have fun with Tyler, Madeline, Anna Kate, and Violet (and, of course, Will). He does so well with other kids, and they LOVE him.

I was taking some pictures of Violet and Anna Kate playing with Will right after he finished eating but before I got him out of the high chair.

As I looked back through the pictures this weekend, some of them made me look again…What was going on??

Somebody, anybody, please help me understand.

…Kids are weird.

~Meghan

Okay, so this isn’t my typical Friday Fave. It’s not a place to go eat or shop or an item to buy. But every now and then, it’s something to do.

I took all the photos and videos off my phone the other night and put them on my computer. Oh geez. It’s so funny to look back and see some of the stuff that I took pictures of over the last few months. Some stuff that was random that I saw out and about, some (or..lots of) pictures of Will and Asher (my, how they’ve grown..) to send to their moms at work, some (ok, lots, again) of Sam and Liam, some odd ones of me.

It would be a shame to keep all this stuff to myself. Here are some random snapshots from my life taken with my phone over the last few months.

Will

He was so little in these first few!!

Asher

Will and Asher Together

Sam and Liam

The way they sit sometimes…it’s bizarre.

Sky

Garden

Randoms That Might Require Explanation

1. My lunch fell on the floor, 2. My new “lunch”, 3. Cute baby slippers I found in a store.

1.Things I got for Free, 2. Waiting 8 hours in airport, 3. Tom almost wasn’t allowed on the plane.

1. That should not be a “word” , 2. Tom hitting on paper cut out at furniture store, 3. New table!

1. Showing Tom we’re not preggers after all (that’s good for now!) , 2. MOCKINGJAY!, 3. Sigh.

1. Boot Camp Worship Time, 2. Some of my 6th grade small group, 3. Things I got for under $24 at Publix.

It’s so funny to look back at all these things and remember. Y’all should see the videos! Another day, perhaps.

What is your favorite image on your phone right now?

~Meghan