Whew! One of these days I really am going to be more consistent about posting entries on this little blog. I always think of things I want to write about but when the ideas hit I am in my car or in the middle of cooking supper or getting Colt ready for bed. Maybe I should start wearing a clip board around my neck so I can jot down my ideas when they hit!

CHANGE IS GOOD

My first order of business with this little blog of
mine has been to find a better name for it. Pipes Place just isn't cutting it for me. After flip-flopping back and forth between various ideas and options, I think I have decided on sincere-beauty. . .  not because I think I am beautiful but because in 2010, I want to be about becoming sincerely beautiful as described in 1 Peter 3:3-4.  I love this verse and want to use it as a guideline for my life this year.

PIONEER WOMAN
 I have recently began reading a new blog. Many of you probably already read it. It is the Confessions of a Pioneer Woman by Ree Drummond. First of all, I LOVE her name. Ree. How simple and cute is that? She lives on a ranch in Oklahoma with her rancher hubby and their 4 children whom she home schools. In addition, she appears to be a fabulous cook and photographer. My mom got me her new cookbook (Pioneer Woman Cooks) for Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it! She took all of her own photos and it is not full of weird recipes, but real life, home cooked recipes with ingredients I think I can actually find at the neighborhood Kroger. I am in the process of figuring out which of her recipes along with my own that I can use to have an "assemble and freeze my meals in advance day"! I have wanted to do this for a long time and I think I am finally motivated to take on a weekend full of cooking, assembling and freezing some meals to have ready for those times of the year when I don't have it "together" which, by the way, happens too OFTEN. Anyway she really has a way with words and a camera. And the fact that she grew up a city girl and is now a full fledged ranchers wife in the middle of nowhere is amusing to me. I highly recommend you check it out if it sounds like your sort of thing.

FAMILY STUFF


Moving on, my step son arrived on Sunday. We had an absolute blast playing our new family Christmas present - a Nintendo Wii. I am embarrased to say that I have become quit addicted to it. I think my favorite is Super Mario Brothers, but I am also becoming quite the hunter by playing the Cabela Big Game Hunter game. . . . it is really cool and scary and fun. The funniest part about it is how tickled Jordan gets that I even play that game! He thinks it is "so cool" that his momma likes to play this pretend hunting game. Needless to say, I think it will be a great way for us to bond. Jake on the other hand is super good at tennis. I've played him a few times and I think that is also one of my favorites because it is so close to the real thing. It's crazy! I came down stairs last night to find James playing bowling - by himself! So he is even enjoying it! Colt isn't really old enough to make the connection between pointing the remote and pushing certain buttons at certain times but we let him think that he is participating. I am so happy that my intuition was right about it being a great way for to bring us all together this week. We are even planning a New Year's Eve family game night with appetizers out the wazoo (thanks to my new cookbook)! I can't wait!

I guess that is all for now. Thanks for stopping by my little blog. I hope you and yours has a wonderfully Happy New Year!

With love,
Jen