Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover

We've all heard this a million times, "It's not what's on the outside that matters." I've never truly paid attention to that phrase until recently. Sure, we all do it. We people watch. Why else do you think People of Walmart is such a great success? Instant judgement at the ready. I had gotten into the habit of simply looking at other people and ruling them out as ugly, losers, too pretty, d-bag, etc.

It's a terrible habit. But, we all do it.
Whether or not you're aware of it, you judge people the instant you see them.
Why?
We are insecure about ourselves.
BINGO.

I went out with a few people last night and I really realized how often I make assumptions about people--their motives, looks, attitudes, etc. I took a step back and decided to really try not to assume things about other people. I took myself out of the driver's seat, I gave up my control. It was awesome. When you let your guard down, you really do benefit, for the most part. You allow other people to get to know you and it's a beautiful thing. That sounds really corny, but, life is too short to have a personal vendetta against the world.

A friend of mine sent me a text that I really needed to read:
"Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got."

Woah. Those are the most powerful words I've heard in a long time. I get angry because I have never received apologies for what people have said or done to hurt me, but I'm not hurting them by holding a grudge, I'm hurting myself. It's not an easy thing to just get over those things, but, it's okay to be down in the slumps sometimes, rather than just being angry all the time. 

Like I've said many times before, no one is perfect. That's a really hard concept to grasp. When you look in the mirror and critique yourself, hatred comes out in its purest form. It's easy to pull yourself apart. But, when others complain that their clothes are too tight, you pull ever beautiful compliment you can muster up from the depth of your heart. Why is it so much easier to compliment others, when you deserve the compliments as well? 

I have a goal on my 101/1001 list to make a list of 20 things I like about myself and post them on my mirror so I can see them every day when getting ready. I'm addicted to colorful pens and sticky notes, so I'm going to attack that task tomorrow. Maybe, if you read and repeat something every day, you'll really start believing it. I will let you know how that works out for me! 

The risk of letting your guard down is worth it for the few good outcomes that may happen. If you get knocked down, just get back up again. 

It's worth making mistakes to better your life. Mistakes only happen once, if they happen frequently, they're choices. You know what is good for you and what is not good for you. You can't control everything. So, let someone else take control/lead for a change. 

Perfect

Made a wrong turn, Once or twice
Dug my way out, Blood and fire
Bad decisions, That's alright
Welcome to my silly life

Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood
Miss "no way, it's all good", It didn't slow me down
Mistaken, Always second guessing
Under estimated, Look, I'm still around

Pretty, pretty please
Don't you ever, ever feel
Like your less than, less than' perfect.
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You're perfect to me.

You're so mean, 
When you talk, About yourself, You are wrong.
Change the voices, In your head
Make them like you Instead.

So complicated, 
Look happy, You'll make it! 
Filled with so much hatred
Such a tired game.
It's enough, I've done all I can think of
Chased down all my demons, I've seen you do the same.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsty.com/pink-perfect-lyrics.html ]
Oh, Pretty, pretty please
Don't you ever, ever feel
Like your less than, less than' perfect.
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You're perfect to me.

The whole world stares so I swallow the fear, 
The only thing I should be drinking is an ice cold beer.
So cool in line and we try, try, try, 
But we try too hard, it's a waste of my time.
Done looking for the critics, cause they're everywhere
They don't like my jeans, they don't get my hair
We change ourselves and we do it all the time

Why do we do that? Why do I do that?
(Why do I do that?)

Pretty, pretty please
Don't you ever, ever feel
Like your less than, less than' perfect.
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You're perfect to me.

Cinnamon and Nutmeg Facial Mask

I made a friend of mine laugh the other day, showing her my previous post where I did that dumbest gelatin/milk facial ever created. My facial expressions were extremely entertaining apparently. So, I realized I needed to do a facial for the month of September and I decided to use the second simplest recipe--cinnamon and nutmeg. It has three ingredients and won't rip every layer of skin off of my face. Good deal. 

Cinnamon and Nutmeg Facial Mask

1. 2 Tablespoons of Honey
2. 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon 
3. 1 teaspoon of Nutmeg

• Mix ingredients 
• Apply to face
• Let sit for 30 minutes
• Wash with warm water while lightly scrubbing in circular motions
• ****This will make a milk chocolate colored mask, so beware for the dark brown on your face!

It doesn't take long to make and it is super easy to apply. This facial mask is for oily skin and is an exfoliating genius--you can feel that grainy texture as you're applying. A big plus is that it smells delicious! You do have to let it sit for 30 minutes, but that's alright. 

I'm doing this facial at 12:15 AM because I don't want to scare my mother with this brown mask on my face...but I'm sharing it with the internet so I guess the time doesn't really matter! This is clearly not a way to score a date. 

I'm trying to make you laugh in these next photos, so let loose, laugh. 

About halfway through it "sitting," part of it started dripping so I really felt like Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, haha. But the good thing is, although I wouldn't want this as a dessert or anything, it is edible. It doesn't harden on your face, so it's easy to wash off. I vote yes for doing this one again! 

Okay, so it's been thirty minutes and I washed off my mask successfully! It did "burn" a little bit because I was exfoliating my skin, but it came off very easily and then I put some moisturizer on and BAM! This facial was much more successful than the skin ripper last month. This is a face of a happy girl!

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

So earlier in the month, I set out to make four new recipes. One of them, which I was extremely excited about, was Garlic Parmesan oven baked chicken. Well, yesterday, when I had time to make it, I went to the kitchen, got everything out, read the directions and discovered that I could prepare it, but it has to marinate ALL day. Big lesson when cooking/baking...read the recipe beforehand. I was kind of upset because I had to make something else. I went to the recipes board on my Pinterest and found the recipe for Crispy Cheddar Chicken. I read the recipe twice to make sure I had everything and it didn't have to sit all day. Done!

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

This is the picture from my Pinterest board that made me want to make it. Looks so delicious! I'm glad I have leftovers. Well, I took some pictures along the way and, it's a super easy recipe--shall we?

Crispy Cheddar Chicken
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 45 minutes
Makes about 7 servings

What you'll need:

Chicken
4 large chicken breasts
2 sleeves of Ritz crackers
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 cup of milk
3 cups of cheddar cheese, grated (I used a mix of cheddar and Colby jack...I really like cheese)
1 teaspoon of dried parsley

Sauce
1 10 ounce can of Cream of Chicken soup
2 Tablespoons of sour cream
2 Tablespoons of butter

***I used frozen chicken breasts, so I had to defrost them before starting. And, when you use frozen chicken breasts, there is added water, so it will need to be coated in more of the Ritz cracker mix to be super crispy.

Chicken:

1. Cut each chicken breast into 3 large chunks
2. In a small food processor, grind up the Ritz crackers (If you don't have a food processor or don't like your cracker mix so fine, put the Ritz crackers in a gallon sized Ziploc bag, seal it really tight, lay it on the counter top and roll it with a rolling pin)
3. Pour the milk, cheese and Ritz crackers into 3 separate small pans.
4. Add the salt and pepper to the cracker mix and and mix it up
5. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray
6. Dip each piece of chicken in the milk, then the cheese and finally the cracker mix (some cheese will come off in the cracker mix, that's to be expected)
7. Lay chicken in the pan
8. Sprinkle the dried parsley over the chicken
9. Cover pan with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes
10. Remove foil and bake uncovered for 10 minutes, or until it's golden brown and crispy

Sauce:

In a medium size sauce pan, whisk together the soup, sour cream and butter until hot. 

***I also made HEB's jasmine rice to go along with this. That only takes 15 minutes to cook and it is delicious! I added green onions to the rice to give it more flavor. 

Overall this recipe was DELICIOUS! But, there is a lot of cheese and cracker mix left over at the end. So, if you plan on making this for a big family event, only double the milk, chicken and sauce mixture. The cheese and cracker mix have plenty to do double. I would make extra gravy anyway because I love gravy and put it on my rice and my chicken. Yum-o. 

I'm really glad my first Pinterest recipe was successful. It was super easy and super delicious. Try it!
Also, I'm really excited to put my very first recipe in my brand new recipe binder! Wahoo!

Why the BBC top 150?

Today, I started to read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. My mother was very curious as to why that was the book I had in my purse. I informed her that on my 101 in 1001 is a goal to read the BBC top 150 books. She laughed.  I just thought she was mocking my goal to read that many books.

Nope.

She asked why I cared about the BBC. Let me tell you, I had no idea what the BBC was...so I was nonchalant and said because it was cool. BBC isn't anything bad but it's the British Broadcasting Corporation. When I googled (yeah it's a verb) "top 150 books" the first link was BBC's top 150. So, no, there is not any specific tie to the BBC, I just wanted to read the "top 150" in 1001 days. Go me.

Now on to War and Peace...
Everyone who has read it and reviewed it speaks of it as if it's gold. I'm very curious. There are SO many characters in this book but they are ALL very developed and well written. The book is giant. My mother laughed at me because instead of downloading it to my Kindle, I brought the giant book with me in my purse. I love my Kindle, don't get me wrong, but I feel like with classic books, you should own them...and I had already purchased it 2 years ago when I was taking a Literature class and was being ambitious. Obviously, that didn't work.

Today was a pretty good day. I've been unpacking all of my crap and realizing I don't need everything. A lot of what I have accumulated is junk. The other half of it is all teaching related and I have to keep--a file cabinet will be my best friend shortly. I even bought a cute little stamp that says "This Music Belongs To:" to put on ALL of my music. I paid for it. One of my goals on my 101/1001 is to alphabetize my music by title and again by genre. Of course, I can't do them both physically, so I will be creating a GIANT Excel document to catalog it all. That's going to be fun...

I ordered the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Hobbit a couple of days ago, so that after I finish this giant novel of Russian-y goodness, I can move on to another series with even more names to try to remember. :)
That's all I have to say about that.