Journaling Prompts

A Wicked Week and Day 10 of 50 days of Journaling

November 12, 2011 by Jess Leave a Comment

Another week gone by in a blink! It started off with a trip to Cincinnati, Ohio to see Wicked with one of my best friends. It was AMAZING!!! I’d go see it again and again if I could. It was a fun little trip, even with spending 18 hours driving within 48 hours! (but we did listen to a little Christmas music which was a treat!)

One of my other best friends was visiting this week from California so that was awesome to see her! She left this morning and now Angus is moping around – he loves her so much. She used to look after the dogs whenever we went away while we were living in California. I kind of wish I could have gone back with her since it’s getting super cold here! I am so not loving this cold weather and I know of course it’s just going to get worse.

Here are today’s journaling prompts:

1. For the following quote, write it in your journal and then write about whatever comes to mind when you read the quote.

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” — Jane Howard

2. 5 things you can’t live without (but no people or animals)

Day 9 of 50 Days of Journaling and awesome healthy snack recipes!

November 6, 2011 by Jess 1 Comment

Here are today’s journaling prompts, sorry for lack of photos for my pages, I have several in progress but they aren’t quite finished yet.

1. My life….

For this one, I thought a fun collage might work. Choose some random pictures (either your own photos or cut stuff out of magazines) that pertain to your life right now. And/or cut out some words and definitions from a dictionary or simply cut up random words that might describe your life. For example, I might use words such as: happy, busy, chaotic, thankful…. to put on my page. Don’t forget to date it!

2. Just for fun….

What fun things have you been doing in the last week or two? Life can’t be all about work – we need some play in there too! Did you see any movies, enjoy a nice date night with your sweetie, eat at a new restaurant, or even just hang out with your family and play a game. Journal about all the fun things you’ve done recently.

So I have a couple quick, easy, and healthy snack recipes to share!

I had read in the past about making kale chips but never tried it. However, while I was making breakfast for our troop of animals this morning, I pulled a big bag of kale out of the fridge for them – and thought why not try it! I’ve been buying kale for years because of its incredible health benefits – but I never once made it for us – I always feed it to the animals, haha. I overcooked the first tray and most of it was pretty brown but I tasted a piece anyway – and it was SO good, that I quickly ate up all the most salvageable pieces before throwing the rest in the garbage. Then I used all the remaining kale we had a made another huge tray of it. Steve walked into the kitchen while I was ripping the kale into bite sized pieces and asked what I was making. When I told him “kale chips”, he got a funny look on his face, the kind of look that says “ewww…” so then I said “they’re so good!!! so good that you aren’t allowed to have any! I want all of it for myself!” A little reverse psychology never hurts, especially when it will get him to try more healthy things! lol! So he thinks about it for a second and then says “I want to try them”. Sure enough after I pulled them out of the oven, properly cooked this time, I put them all into a big bowl and offered Steve one. He tried it and loved it!! So we polished off the bowl of chips in a couple minutes and were sad we didn’t have more.

Kale Chips: (sorry I totally forgot to take a photo – yep they were that good – didn’t last long enough!)

rip apart kale leaves into bite sized pieces and remove the stems, then put them into a large mixing bowl and spray with cooking spray. Toss so they all get evenly coated. (You really don’t have to add too much spray, they still taste delicious even when they aren’t saturated with oil). Sprinkle some sea salt on and toss them again. Spread out evenly on a cooking sheet and bake in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. The first time you make these, keep checking on them and pull them out just when the edges start to brown. All oven are different so timing will vary. Be prepared for these to disappear fast! 🙂

The oil I use is Coconut oil which I found at Whole Foods. It’s supposed to be really healthy and it’s good for high heat. (Apparently olive oil is not good for high heat….)

So after we finished off out kale chips, I went back into the kitchen to make another of our favorite healthy snacks: Baked zucchini. This recipe I got from my good friend Jodi, who is back in BC. Jodi, I miss you so much!

Slice a zucchini up and spread the slices on a baking tray (spray with oil first), then sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 350 for about 15 min (once again, keep an eye on them and pull them out when they start to brown a bit). Oh my goodness, these are so delicious, I could eat them all day long. These are also a favorite of Steve’s so I had to share them, haha. These didn’t even last a minute I don’t think, we were fighting over the bowl!

Day 8 of 50 Days of Journaling

October 30, 2011 by Jess Leave a Comment

Today’s prompts:

1. Happiness is…..

Try to think of the little things that often get overlooked. Such as those listed in the Book of Awesome. Great book, I highly recommend.

Some examples (which happen to be some of my little happiness things) are:

– getting a great parking spot (which is great when the whole parking lot is full and then you find an empty spot right up front)

– Ice cubes that easily pop right out of the tray (side note: the BEST ice cube trays I’ve found are the silicone ones from Target. And they are often on sale – so what if they’re bright pink? They are amazing!!)

– Air Delight Hershey Kisses. Try them, you’ll love them. For all the Canadian’s out there – think of an Aero bar in a Hershey’s Kiss. Yep, AMAZING.

2. Where I live

Describe where you live and what you really like about it. (can be about your home and / or the city you live in)

– I am really trying to get used to living in Chicago but I am totally homesick for both California and BC, Canada.

Day 7 of 50 Days of Journaling

October 27, 2011 by Jess Leave a Comment

For today’s journaling prompts you may need to keep them in the back of your mind and come back to them later.

1. This made me smile….

How many times do you smile a day? Hopefully more than you think you do. What is life without the fun stuff? The good stuff? The warm feelings? Today while you’re going about your regular activities, try to be aware (and remember when and why) of the times you are smiling. Or even just one specific thing that brought a smile to your face. Do something a little extra maybe and smile at a stranger you see at the grocery store, or at someone walking past you on the sidewalk. Remember, “Smile and the World smiles with you.”

2. Today I accomplished….

Some days go by where I am so thrilled that I got so much done, and what a productive day it turned out to be. Others pass by in a blink and I feel like I got nothing done, however, when I think about it, I really did get a lot done. They may have been small things, but even the small things are accomplishments. Today give some thought about all the little things (or maybe even big things) that you finished or crossed off your giant To-Do list and journal about those amazing accomplishments.

Our New “Babe” and Day 6 of 50 Days of Journaling

October 26, 2011 by Jess 1 Comment

Once again a delay in the journaling prompts and I am sorry for that. My lovely laptop decided to wreak havic this month and had to go in to get fixed THREE times. I think it spent more time in the Apple store this month then it did in our home. Finally it seems to be working properly but I’ve had to reinstall everything as they wiped it clean twice. I lost a bit but most I had on backups.

However, not having a computer to distract me, led me to spend lots of time with the newest member of our family, a 9 week old pot bellied piglet named Norman, our very own little “Babe.”

As my mother pointed out to me when I phoned her to get her opinion on whether we should get the pig, she reminded me that it’s been a life long dream of mine to have a pig. Yes it sure has, I remember being really little and begging my parents for a pet pig. That’s where they put their foot down (and I think laws in our district probably also would have put their foot down on having pet pigs). I did move onto other things though and continued to pester my poor parents and they gave in and let me have rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, chinchillas, hedgehogs…. So I owe my parents a ginormous THANK YOU for putting up with me and all my animals!

Lucky for me I married a man who is as animal crazy as I am (I think he actually surpasses me on this one!) so he was just as excited as I was about adding the little piglet to our family. We’ve only had Norman just over a week but already I can’t imagine him not being here. The dogs love following him around as he grunts and snorts and tries to find anything at all on the floor that he can put in his mouth. He’s tiny but he has already mastered jumping up onto our bed, onto the couch and out of the bathtub! Yep, he’s a handful but we love him!

He’s got the remote, the laptop and a dog chewy. He’s all set.

Moosie’s not too sure he wants to share our attention with the piggy

Now onto Day 6 of Journaling!! If you’re playing along, speak up! Do you have any pages to share? Comments?

Here are today’s prompts:

1. Choose a song title or a lyric to start your journaling.

2. My thoughts about Fall

What do you love about Fall, what do you not like so much about it? Think about the smells, the sights, and the sounds of Fall. If you can, include a photo of your neighborhood or backyard right now.

I will get my photos of my pages up later. For now, I’m going to go have some chicken noodle soup. Both my hubby and I are home sick today with bad colds. Not even the DayQuil is helping today.

Day 5 of 50 Days of Journaling

October 18, 2011 by Jess 1 Comment

Finally I somewhat have my computer back up – with a brand new hard drive – but something else is wrong and it’s gotta go back in again *sigh* but while I still have it, here is Day 5 of the 50 Days of Journaling:

1. “Around Me” : you can take this a few different ways. Look around you right now and journal about what the room you’re in looks like, what stuff you have lying around, what book you are currently reading, what project you are working on, etc.

2. ‘What I’m currently…..” reading….working on (projects)…listening to….etc. Take a photo of the books in your bookshelf and journal about what the books are, or which ones you are currently reading. Or take a look in your ipod and journal about your most played tunes. I did my page on what shows are currently in our DVR. This kind of stuff may seem like just ordinary day to day stuff, but later on, these really are fun to look back on and read.