Uncategorized – Page 5 – Cafe Du Martin

DRINK | spiced arnold palmer

Published on October 3, 2014 by Joanna2 Comments

Happy Friday! Time for a little happy hour inspiration or maybe just a new something to sip on this weekend while you relax and unwind from the stresses of the week.

A few summers ago, my husband and I had our very first taste of sweet tea vodka. This husband of mine, being the genius that he is, decided to make an Arnold Palmer of sorts and combined this new and delicious liquor with some lemonade. Voila! We had so many of those yummy cocktails that summer as we floated in pools and soaked up the summer sun. Well last week I went to my first moms night out and decided to mix up a pitcher to share with some new friends. But I was thinking even though it may still feel like summer here in Texas, we are all mentally in a fall state of mind. So I added a little spice to the traditional sweet tea + lemonade combo.

Here we have the Spiced Arnold Palmer – a bit of lemonade, a bit of vodka, a bit of spiced rum… sounds like a nice and easy transition in to fall!

Spiced Arnold Palmer

Ingredients

3-4 parts Simply Lemonade (the only lemonade we use – I like how it actually tastes like lemons with little tartness!)
1 part Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka (I enjoy both the ‘Skinny Tea’ or regular tea – if you are wanting to go sugar free the skinny tea still tastes great)
1/2 part Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
Lemon slices for garnish (optional)
Cinnamon Sugar for rim (optional)
Ice

Rub the rim of your glass using one of your lemon slices and dip the rim of the glass into cinnamon sugar. Fill your tall glass half way with ice. Add your 3-4 parts Simply Lemonade to your glass (about half way), add 1 part sweet tea vodka and 1/2 part spiced rum. Stir your ingredients together. Add a lemon wedge for garnish and enjoy!

Have a great weekend and enjoy this transition into cooler temperatures!

happenings!

Published on June 16, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

I can officially say we have started to settle into this new phase of life and I can slowly but surely detect some semblance of routines and schedules approaching on the horizon. Just the fact that this baby girl is sleeping through the night more regularly makes me feel more human and alive. I really think mom’s forget the newborn phase due to lack of sleep and brain function. I really can’t remember much of those first two weeks with her home – and that’s probably for the best if we ever want to have another!

So because of the newborn induced blogging hiatus I feel like some sort of all encompassing life update post is needed.

-mother’s day, father’s day and birthdays have been life consuming these past couple of months

-as of Friday we have a 10 week old. that whole time-moving-way-too-fast for my liking but also really enjoying this new phase of baby life.

-weddings on weddings on weddings. between the birthday/holiday celebrations we have been and are going to be involved in a ton of weddings this summer! it’s only a little bit ridiculous but also a lot a bit exciting for so many wonderful people in our lives.

-speaking of weddings, we survived our first road trip with a babe. we ventured down to NOLA for a friend’s wedding and had a fabulous time.

-we are officially crunchy/granola people and have hopped on the cloth diapering band wagon (and it’s not so bad)

-I chopped my hair because mom things.

-we finally came to a decision about teaching next year and I will not be going back to my beloved school for now.

Some of these little life updates deserve full posts of their own (especially the last one) but for now this will have to do.

Happy Monday!

opening day

Published on April 2, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

This past Monday was what I would consider, one of the best days of the year (aside from a few special holidays and our anniversary of course;). Opening day for baseball season. I am my father’s daughter and have loved this sport for as long as I can remember. For the past few years we have made it a family tradition of sorts to head out to the ballpark and enjoy the opening day festivities. Due to my huge pregnant belly this year and unsure of when this little girl would make her arrival – we opted out of opening day. But I loved following the game and reminiscing over pictures from the past years. It makes me so excited for baseball season, summer, and spending warm nights watching one of the greatest games in the world. Happy baseball season!

hi blog!

Published on February 16, 2014 by Joanna2 Comments

Well a big woops on my part for a week-long unintentional break. I can honestly say that the break was somewhat needed though and that unfortunately life has been filled to the brim with things that either I shouldn’t blog about or am unsure of blogging about.

These past few weeks have just been tough.

Not to delve into too much unnecessary detail but…you know when you have those seasons in life where you feel that one area of your life is completely out of control but the others are somewhat tolerable (praise God!)? Yeah… that has not been the case over here lately and I have been feeling like every aspect of my life is completely out of control and somewhat of a downer in some regards. I have had a lot on my very tiny little plate and I didn’t feel it at first but boy am I now. Work, family, friends, home, pregnancy…life. everything. Sometimes it gets to be a little much and these are the times I wish I could invest some time on a private island far, far away and just to refocus and figure out what my priorities actually are instead of getting caught up in every little thing.

I realize that some of my overwhelmed feelings are stemming from the overly abundant and ever so present hormones running rampant in my 33 week pregnant body and that some of these emotions and stresses will hopefully calm down in the next few months. Aside from that, I just feel done in a lot of ways and that the amount of things I am having to deal with simultaneously is almost too much.

What did Mother Teresa say? “I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.”

embracing motherhood: when I found out I was a mom

Published on January 31, 2014January 31, 2014 by Joanna1 Comment

One of the definitions of the word embrace is: accept or support (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically. These are a few thoughts on motherhood and how I am embracing it in my life or rather how it is embracing me.

We found out we were pregnant the day after getting home from a celebratory weekend honoring our one year anniversary. We stayed at a local historic hotel and ventured around the downtown/uptown area of our city. We went out to eat, walked, adventured, and even went on a brewery tour (perfect timing eh?;) to reminisce our first year in this crazy, wonderful sacrament. It was an absolutely perfect weekend and I think about it often.

But that weekend I was feeling a little funny, and the day we were leaving the hotel I knew something was wrong. We ventured down to the hotel restaurant to grab a bite before checking out. When I looked at my delicious breakfast that consisted of the two largest pieces of bacon I have ever laid eyes on (bacon is by far my favorite food group, close runners up are chocolate and diet coke, you can call me the queen of healthy)…and I couldn’t stand the thought of eating them. Let the red flags abound!

We had been talking about starting our family all summer and we were both open to the opportunity of a new life within the coming year. We thought it would be the perfect time – financially, emotionally, physically – we were as “ready” to enter into parenthood as we would ever be so…we went for it.

After tossing my beloved (yet at the time disgusting) bacon aside and finishing up breakfast we drove home. When we walked back into our little apartment, I had this tugging at my heart telling me I needed to take a pregnancy test. However, being the paranoid newly wed that I was I had a pretty good stockpile going because every month I just KNEW I was pregnant. As Eric was unloading the car I popped into the bathroom and humbled myself to the little stick. This time the feeling felt different. It wasn’t the. “I think I am, I think I am, I think I am…but I know I’m really not.” It was, “I don’t know if I am…what if I am? Is this it?”

So then I did it. I took the test. Turned it over so I wouldn’t peek and waited for what really was the longest 3 minutes of my life. I heard Eric come into our room while I was waiting and I just knew he was probably suspicious of what I was doing because I had been in there for an eternity (re: 1.5 minutes had passed by).

Then what do you know…an extra little blue line that had never been on any test I had taken before. Happy Anniversary mom and dad!

After I took 1 more test (I mean ClearBlue is pretty much fool proof – there are no lines to decode just prego or no) I came out of the bathroom to find Eric laying on our bed looking at his phone. Because of our recent baby talk I of course had been scheming of really obnoxiously cute and adorable ways to tell him there was a little resident in my womb – when the day came. Little did I know that my overly compulsive, word vommitting self would just not have cute and adorable that day because I blurted it out then and there that we had ourselves an anniversary present!

Those first few days, scheduling a doctors appointment, confirming the little blue lines, it was all so full of love and emotion and dear lord was it full of hormones. I just remember thinking – do I want this? yes. do I want this? I don’t know. can I handle this? absolutely not. do I want this? yes.

So here I am…on the verge of 31 weeks and still asking myself if I can handle this but my heart wants nothing more. There are days where I know my soul embraces motherhood full force, thinking about nothing else but the excitement I feel when I think about this girl. But there are days where I think… I can’t do this. I’m so young. What were we thinking? If I’m being completely honest with myself (and who ever deems this blog worthy reading material) today was a day that fell with the latter sentiment. After finishing up our birth and childcare class last night I left thinking – what. am. I. DOING? I can’t even swaddle a baby! How am I going to keep this tiny person alive for more than an hour by myself? How am I going to work and mother at the same time? Baby poop has the most variations of poops I have ever seen! Feeding times! Sleep times! Trying to get sleep yourself! HOLY. COW.

It’s days like today where I like thinking about the day I found out we were pregnant. A day where nothing else mattered but the love between God and my husband and me. A day that had it’s doubts and worries but above all else it was the day where I had to truly start embracing this whole mom thing…and to think, it’s only the beginning.

clickity clack

Published on January 23, 2014 by Joanna1 Comment

a few posts or articles I stumbled upon this week that I enjoyed reading…

15 genius tips for living in small spaces: This has been on my mind A LOT lately with this little lady’s birthday fast approaching. I love our apartment and we have been living in this complex for the entirety of our almost 2 year married life. We even lived in separate apartments at the same complex while we were engaged – so we have literally tested out each floor plan our landlord has to offer…but I am craving more space. I look around sometimes and feel so ungrateful because all I can think about is how the heck are we going to fit another tiny human (with a ton of STUFF) in here??? These tips were a good read and put a few things into perspective for me. Also, reminding myself to simplify, simplify, simplify.

This delicious looking recipe is probably going to end up on our meal rotation next week. Eric gifted me with the Dinner a Love Story cookbook this year for Christmas and I haven’t really put it down yet – in the kitchen or outside of the kitchen. I would definitely say it is my favorite food blog by far and that most of my meal inspiration comes from them and their family’s dinner philosophy.

Priorities, productivity, parenting. This post has been on my mind a lot this week. While I am not a stay at home mom and I have yet to even push out our first born… I have had both priorities and productivity on the brain. In my classroom, at home, in my vocation, in where I am going in this little life. Sometimes I really want my head to just stop and that my brain had an off switch. Thinking can be the most bothersome sometimes.

And links I wish I had…cute maternity dresses. Currently searching for a couple for upcoming showers so that I feel at least a wee bit cute! Just having a hard time finding something at the moment.

Happy Wednesday!

new week, new recipe

Published on January 20, 2014January 20, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

Happy Monday!

For the past few months a little group of friends and myself have been meeting for brunch every month and every other month discussing a book together. It all started with Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and then we moved on to A Voice in the Wind by the same author (admitting right now that this book is a beast and I’m still not finished). It’s been a great time to meet with some girls from our church and talk about faith, love, and usually towards the end we will talk about the book a little bit. (; These are all women that I have worked with in either youth ministry over the past few years or just recently through our young adult ministry at church and they couldn’t be more dear. This next round we are reading Style, Sex, and Substance – I’m so pumped!

I made the most adorable mini quiches yesterday and the recipe was pretty much the easiest thing. Sharing and saving for future reference!

Mini Biscuit Quiches

-2 rolls of mini frozen biscuits

-6 eggs

-your favorite cheese (I used a blend of cheddar and mozzarella because it’s what we had on hand)

-4 tbsp of milk

-salt & pepper

-any other mix-ins you may want to add (I added kale and ham to one batch and they were delish!)

1. Roll out the biscuits with a rolling pin until flat then put into bottom and sides of greased cupcake tins for the crust.

2. Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Once well blended add cheese.

3. This is where if you wanted to get crazy you can add ham, bacon, kale, spinach, etc. I made half of my batch with just cheese and the other half with kale and ham.

4. Pour about 2tbsp of the egg mixture into each muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Adapted from: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=90551

Delish! So super easy that I think I might add these to our weekday mornings. Have a happy Monday!

seven quick takes

Published on January 18, 2014January 20, 2014 by Joanna1 Comment

FRIDAY! Three day weekend! Halle-freaking-lujah! Aside from this week being exhausting in every sense of the word, it flew by which I always consider a good thing but boy am I ready to get to the weekend.

This is pretty much the constant state my desk was in this week:

So, usually when I type out my quick takes I just type a short little snippet by each number and then throughout the day I’ll add to the list as I have time. After typing out my list this morning I realized that the majority of my takes are super baby related – obviously where my brain is at these days. (;

1. Baby, baby, baby…SHOWERS! Holy cow do we have generous people in our lives. We have four baby showers on the horizon and it absolutely blows my mind how wonderful people are and how much they care about our family. Considering we are starting out with absolutely nothing in the baby department (I think that’s pretty normal for first timers right?) it is definitely easing my nerves knowing that we are about to be showered with more baby stuff than we could possibly imagine. I received the invite to our first shower which will be in NOLA in February and my super talented MIL designed these adorable invites!

2. Birthing, CPR, First Aid… we definitely had our fill of baby related classes this week. On Wednesday we had our birthing class and we were lucky enough to be the only couple there! The nurse leading our class is the absolute sweetest and makes all of this new and sometimes scary stuff seem not SO terrifying. Even though we were just in the labor and delivery unit last Friday after my little rendezvous with the floor, we still had our tour and got to check out our digs for our birthing stay. I would have to say that being completely traumatized from watching videos about every little thing your kid can eat, choke, and die on… our CPR class was all worth it to see my husband hold the baby mannequin like this the whole night.

3. Earlier this week I posted about Psalm 139:14 and my sweet friend Heidi wrote a post about a very similar topic. Especially applicable for those working in youth ministry or married to someone who is called to a vocation in ministry.

4. Funniest teaching moment of the week: I have been waiting for the fateful day when one of my students were to ask me how this baby was either made or how it is going to come out of my body. Well, today was the day. One of my kiddos asked me, “Mrs. Martin… if your baby is inside of you. How is it going to get out?” Thankfully my class was about to head on in to P.E. so it was by the grace of God’s sweet, sweet timing that I was able to say…”You should ask your mom about that and have fun playing in P.E. BYE!” Whew.

5. So… nursery? I have to admit that aside from random fits of deep cleaning around our apartment I haven’t really been in a nesting mood. But lately, all I can think about is nursery stuff and space. We are getting closer and closer to buying a house but we know that we are going to be here for the first few months of this little lady’s life and I’m trying to figure out in my head just where everything is going to go. I’ve been trying to keep most of this to myself but more than a few times this week I have caught myself thinking about nurseries and cribs and bouncers and STUFF. I know we are going to make it work it just tends to knot up my brain at times.

6. I have felt a wee bit guilty this week being so busy every night. Someone is turning into the neediest puppy in the WORLD. Yesterday we had time to play “fetch” with the frisbee for a little while (aka: I throw, she catches and runs away, I chase after her, she runs away, repeat, repeat, SQUIRREL, drop.) and I swear you would have thought this was the first time in the history of her short life that anyone human has ever paid attention to her. Poor girl.

7. Yummy recipe find of the week! I made these little oatmeal bites (ok they are really called oatmeal balls but… I’m immature and bites sounds better, yes?) I’m thinking they are going to become a part of our normal rotation. They were great for mornings and I would eat a few with my smoothie.

Recipe: Oatmeal Bites

1 c. rolled oats

1 c. nuts/shredded coconut (I’m not a huge fan so I opted for pecans)

1/2 c. carob chips

1/2c. peanut butter

1/2 c. flax seed

1/3 c. honey/agave

1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix all ingredients together (either with a spoon or the paddle attachment on your stand mixer – I used the latter)

2. Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

3. Take out scoop and make into little balls.

4. Enjoy!

Happy weekending!

Psalm 139:14

Published on January 15, 2014January 16, 2014 by Joanna3 Comments

“I praise you for I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works!”

These were the words that I read during my planning period this morning and really, they could not have been better timed. I signed up for these fabulous emails by way of a post on Camp Patton (seriously, one of my favorite blogs – her kiddos are hilarious and they definitely get it from their mama). These little snippets in my inbox every morning have really been helping me make it through the day – especially this week which has been filled to the brim with conferences, trying to get ahead on lesson plans/work, and just not feeling so great in the pregnancy department (hello third trimester morning sickness – we meet at last!).

I know that I have said this before but I don’t think I can really say it enough – teaching is hard. It is by far one of the most satisfying things I have found in this life and I love the feeling I get when I see a child come alive in their learning abilities. However, this year. Oh, this year. This year has been my hardest year by far. I won’t delve into the gory details but I have read the statistics of how long a new teacher lasts in this profession and they aren’t pretty. Some say that 40-50% of new teachers will quite their jobs within the first five years of teaching, because they become so burned out and disheartened by their efforts in the classroom.

I am still maintaining my positive outlook aspirations for this semester, or at least trying to. I still love my school and my coworkers and my kiddos. But sometimes, when the going gets rougher than rough (like this week). I think to myself – what else would I do? What else CAN I do? These are the times when I doubt my abilities the most. Am I creative enough? Am I smart enough? Am I driven enough? What have I done wrong? My mind tells me: I must be the most broken and incompetent teacher out there. Give up.

Then come these words. The words at the top. God made me wonderfully. He made me in His image. I know this and I hear this often but really, HOW often do I let these words speak to my soul? He has given me this desire to teach for a reason. He has blessed me with the tools and opportunities that I need at this time in my life to grow and learn. He won’t give me more than I can handle – but I sure can overload myself and put more unnecessary worries into my life and job than needed. These challenges I am facing at work are teaching me and making me grow. The process isn’t necessarily fun but the outcomes will be great. I need to keep reminding myself of this Psalm on weeks and days where I start to feel so burned out. Because no matter all of the thoughts and doubts and hesitations that run through my mind – He is right there comforting me, consistently telling me that it’s ok. Really, He is telling me it’s more than ok.

It’s wonderful.

Happy Wednesday (:

Bumpdate: 28 weeks

Published on January 13, 2014 by Joanna2 Comments

While I haven’t been posting regular bumpdates, we have still been documenting this whole crazy my-belly-is-becoming-a-basketball-thing. I realized today that the last time I posted an update on the little lady that I still looked like I ate a big sandwich…which is definitely not the case anymore.

Pardon the tired eyes and crazy bangs I have going on. Not really sure why my hair is doing that but we’ll go with it. These past few weeks have been full of the fair share of excitement. As mentioned previously, I was in a car accident the day before winter break started and this week… I fell at school after tripping over a student. Everything is a-ok between my little amiga and me but it this tumble did lend itself to a good four hour freak-out, tears, and an overnight stay at the hospital (just getting in practice for April, right?). I will say that falling flat on my face while pregnant is quite possibly one of the most terrifying things to ever happen to me and I can’t even to begin to describe how thankful I am that our little girl is ok. Hearing her heartbeat at the hospital was by far the most relieving moment I have ever felt.

After talking to my doctor I’m pretty sure I might need to be bubble wrapped for the duration of this pregnancy. I don’t see myself getting anymore graceful!