I'm moving!

I am so excited about this and so sorry it's going to cause you to have to press a few more buttons,

but it's going to be

SO WORTH IT!

So- please head over to www.amandamichellemoon.com

(yep, I own my name. How fun is that?!?!?)

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Design*Sponge

Do you subscribe to Design*Sponge yet?

If not, you must. If for no other reason than to learn how to make adorable vases from old light fixtures.


I will warn you- the blog is updated often. Like, several times a day often. So sometimes it can feel overwhelming.

But fear not- no one will hunt you down if you choose to skip over a post without reading it. Sometimes, I just look at the pictures and smile.

First Day Jitters

I had a terrible morning today but quite a nice evening and night. I taught a wonderful couple a very fun Pilates lesson, and was told that my lessons have helped lesson the need for chiropractic care! Then I came home and played with my kids, put them to bed, and painted. After sitting down with a glass of wine and a bowl of perfectly browned popcorn to read, an idea for a children's book hit me. I raced to my computer and shot out the first draft. Very excited to look at it tomorrow and see if I still like it.

I'm on a creative high right now, and would love to stay up, watch The Rachel Zoe Project or Project Runway, and make a bunch of new jewelry. But, I must fight the urge, because tomorrow is my first day of school. I am enrolled in The Writer's Loft at MTSU and could not be more excited. This is the first big step I've taken in my writing since college, and the first time ever I've invested real money it in (besides buying this computer.) I'm like a 5 year old the day before kindergarten- I want to sleep in my clothes I'm so excited!

**Photo from Design*Sponge. Click here to make your own notebooks!

Work Smarter

Some version of "Don't work harder, just work smarter" has been coming at me from all sides this week: triathlon training newsletters, marathon training newsletters, blogs, books, magazines, you name it.

I wonder if God is trying to tell me something.

Nah...must be a coincidence.

Or not.

Running!

I have not been waking up in the mornings to run, mostly because I haven't been going to sleep at night. Yesterday my new FiveFingers came, and I was quite excited to try them out.

This adorable little girl was my running companion. We ran the entire length of our street!

These are my new shoes:

I'm not entirely sure yet how I feel about them. They did feel really good to run in, but the seam where the fabric meets the shoe on the right side rubbed a great big terrible hole in my foot. Not even a blister- a hole. It hurts. Bad. But I did run better- I stood straighter, knew immediately every time my form started to suffer, and I ran faster than I usually do. It was only 2 miles. We'll see how they do when I up the mileage. But, in the interest of saving my big toe, I don't think I'll be wearing them for the half marathon on the 25th.

Painting Marathon

I got behind while I was on vacation, but I'm almost all caught up now! Here are my latest creations!













This has been one of the best parts of my summer. More information on Creatively Fit and Whitney Ferre here.

Cooking

I've had two great food victories this week:

First: Stuffed Eggplant. Husband and both kids ate it!



Tonight: Kettle Corn!

Recipes:
Stuffed Eggplant:
Ingredients:

• 1 Bulb Eggplant
  
• 2tsp Olive Oil
  
• 1 Garlic Bulb
  
• 1/4 c Bread Crumbs
  
• 1/4 c Tomato Sauce
  
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese
  

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350
   
2. Heat oil over medium high heat in skillet, add garlic and let it lightly brown
   
3. Cut the top off the eggplant and clean the insides out (like a pumpkin)
   
4. Grind the eggplant "meat" up in a food processor with the bread crumbs, tomato sauce and Parmesan.
   
5. Add eggplant mixture to skillet, heat through.
   
6. Scoop mixture into the eggplant shell
   
7. Top with cheese
   
8. Cook for 20 minutes at 350, then switch the oven to broil for 5 minutes to brown the cheese.
   
9. Photograph, slice, and serve
   

Kettle Corn:
Ingredients:

• 1/4c Popcorn
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp Honey

Directions

1. Turn burner on to medium high (don't preheat pan though)
   
2. Put oil and popcorn into the pan
3. If you have a whirly pop, stir the popcorn. If not, gently shake the pan until the first kernal pops.
4. Add honey quickly and continue to shake or stir until popping stops

*Confession: I LOVE burnt popcorn, so the fact that this is just about the easiest recipe in the world to burn doesn't bother me. That said, if you don't like burnt popcorn, this one is going to take some practice.

Arabella Cobb

Arabella Cobb was born on May 18th at 7pm at just 22 weeks and four days. She weighed just one pound. She was given less than a 5% chance of surviving through the night. 114 days later, this inspiring, amazing little child is still here.

Born so early, her body was not ready for the world. She has battled problems with most of her major organ systems, including her skin. She has had surgery on both her heart and her eyes, and has made some great strides. She has been taken off the ventalator twice, to give her lungs a chance to work on their own. The last time she was able to sustain herself through eye surgery and was even on a simple nasal canula for a while (the same thing that many older folks walk around with all the time.) She's now weighing in at just under 4 pounds!

On Tuesday, September 7 they had to put her back on the ventalator. Her lungs had collapsed, and she was unable to get enough air on her own. Yesterday her parents had to make the difficult decision to start her on an experimental treatment- another round of steroids- to try to help initiate lung tissue growth. Her lungs simply cannot keep up with her. The possible side effects of this treatment are stunted growth, mental retardation and infection. The other option was to do nothing, which would pretty much guarantee that Bella would never come off the vent.

I tell you all of this to ask for your prayers.
Prayer for tiny baby Bella: God has shown His power through this tiny child time and time again. It's seemed hopeless and MIRACULOUSLY she has progressed. Please pray that the steroids will help her lungs without causing problems elsewhere.
Prayer for the doctors and nurses taking care of Bella: Wisdom, faith and confidence.
Prayer for Chris and Telisha, Bella's parents: Strength, courage, sustaining faith.
Prayer for Dylan, Bella's three year old brother: Understanding and hope.

You can read more about Bella and send her family notes of encouragement at http://arabellacobb.blogspot.com/.

Thank you.

Book Review: Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado

Max Lucado's new book, Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference, is a straight-forward, practical approach to making a difference. "No one can do everything, but every one can do something." The early church of Acts used this philosophy to spread the news of Jesus throughout all of Asia. We can use this philosophy to show people that Jesus is still real, and still matters.

The problems of our current society are huge: hunger, poverty, wars, famines, civil rights abuses...the list goes on and on. Rather than become paralyzed by the enorminty of it all, each of us just needs to find small actions we can take: sponsor a child, volunteer, PRAY. He doesn't advocate that we all sell all of our possesions and live in poverty until everyone has everything that they need. But maybe take some of that coffee budget and use it to create good for someone else.

Max's writing is, as always, conversational and straightforward I don't feel the hell fire and brimstone raining down from the pulpet, but I do feel the small voice inside of me challenging: what can I do? What will I say to my children and grandchildren when they ask how I helped?

Another voice crush

Seriously- Mat Kearney.
New York to California:

But you could find your self lost out in this world
And I found a way to get back to your side no mountains to high, no stone is too small
I'll build a bridge through the fire, for you I would crawl
From New York to California
I could hear you softly breathing, oh what you do to me
But baby I could climb down into your dreams I
Build a ladder down through the clouds
Where the storms Is raging now I
Don't want to sing another song without you

It's on my list of songs that I wish I would have had at my wedding.
And we had some pretty amazing music at our wedding.
Just sayin'

City of Black & White

An eggplant a day...

Photo from here

I love eggplant. My husband and kids though, not so much. So the fact that we've gotten 5 eggplants in the last two weeks from our CSA was a bit perplexing, because, while I like me some eggplant parm, I don't have the time to make or eat 5 eggplants worth of the stuff, and it's not such a good freeze and reheat meal.

Google to the rescue!

Tonight I made Roasted Eggplant and Feta Dip (click here for full recipe) to eat tomorrow with my homemade bruschetta and french bread (yes, I made that too.) We picked up some goat cheese n on Saturday and I've been looking forward to this meal since then.

The best part about all of these recipes is that none of them required more than about 10 minutes of hands on time, and man oh man do they taste good. Plus, all can be eaten for both meals and snacks, and most of the ingredients came either from my garden, my CSA or the Franklin Farmer's Market. It doesn't get much better than this for fresh, local food in September.

Book Review: The Butterfly Effect

I don't usually get into gift books, but The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Mattersis intriguing from the beginning. Beautifully laid out, the book first explains what the The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Mattersis- the idea that a butterfly flapping it's wings could cause a hurricane on the other side of the world- and then gives examples of how seemingly insignificant decisions changed the course of history. While the premise behind the book is not unique, especially in Christian literature, it is clear, exciting and inspiring.

"The very beating of your heart has meaning and purpose.
Your actions have value far greater than silver or gold.
Your life ... And what you do with it today ...
MATTERS FOREVER."

This book would make a great gift for anyone entering a new stage in their life- whether that is graduation or parented, or anyone who needs to be reminded that their actions matter.

Book Review: The Boy Who Changed the World

3 Stars

The Boy Who Changed the World tells the story of the boy who invented a new type of corn that would grow in arid climates, thereby feeding over 2 million people. Except maybe it wasn't him who should get credit for feeding those people, maybe it should be the man who hired him. Or the man who taught him, or the man who saved him. You get the idea- no one can truly receive credit, because they all had a hand in it.

For children of the right age, this story is a wonderful conversation starter. In the end, it's not clear if the credit should be shared, or if the point of the story is that you should never take credit for anything because no idea was yours alone. Obviously, the point is that even though you might not see it today, your actions could have effects in another lifetime. Just be careful if you have cynical (pre)teens around.

The Boy Who Changed the Worldis wonderfully illustrated and paced well, and kept the attention of my 1 & 2 year olds until the end, which is no easy feat.

A little eye candy before bed

I stumbled across Elena Kalis's work from a link on a tweet.
I am mesmerized.
It is beautiful.
You must check it out.

Coffee

While at Publix on Sunday, a very sweet gentleman stopped me and asked if I wanted to taste "The best coffee you've ever tasted."

Well, of course I would! I was slightly skeptical because I only drink flavored coffee with flavored creamer, because I haven't quite grown up into the adult coffee world yet. But I thought, what the heck.

Nashville Roast hand roasts their coffee in the same building as The Mercy Lounge and Cannery Ballroom off of 8th Ave in Nashville. The coffee I was drinking on Sunday had been roasted on Saturday.

I have never tasted a better coffee, or a better coffee drink. I've never had "fresh" coffee before, and it is all that it's cracked up to be. I bought a pound and put the Chocolate Mint Ghirardelli coffee that was in my cart back. And, Nashville Roast was $3 per pound LESS than the Ghirardelli that I was planning on buying!

Saving money and getting better coffee? I'm all about it.

(The coffee is so good that as I was drinking my first cup on my way to work on Monday, I had to call my mom and tell her about it. At 6:45am. Seriously!)

Greatest Salad EVER

Have you heard of Daily Dish in Franklin? It's actually up in Grassmere, but I just learned that's not actually a city. So we'll say Franklin.

Anyway, Daily Dish is a meat and three next to a dry cleaner, just down the street from the coffee shop that Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman like to hang out at. The daily menu is written on a chalkboard outside the door and you can peruse the dessert options as you're picking up your silverware.

But this meat and three is special, because they have a full menu of salads and sandwiches that you can order in addition to the good ol' southern fare they're dishing out. It's perfect for us, because I can get (the best) macaroni cheese and a salad or sandwich, and Chris can have his chicken fried steak or jambalaya or whatever else they've got going on. It's one of our favorite lunch places.

About a week ago we went there for dinner with both of the kids. They shared a kids meal and (brace yourself) THERE WERE LEFTOVERS! From MY KIDS! These are the same kids who often eat more than me at any given meal. So as far as value goes, nothing beats it.

I ordered the Almond Encrusted Goat Cheese salad. I've had the Pesto Chicken Sandwich before (amazing) but I was really just craving some fruit and veggies.

Oh. my. goodness.

Seriously, this is the BEST SALAD I HAVE EVER EATEN.

And I said so between just about every bite. And I couldn't quit talking about it all the way home. I don't know how to fully express to you just how good this salad was, except that I have been thinking about it for the last 10 days and right now I'm trying to figure out how I could talk my boss into taking us there for lunch today. (It's at least a 45 minute drive each way from our office. Not going to happen.)

Just looking at this picture makes me want to drool.