Monday’s Quote

“If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?” Laurence J. Peter

I have little pockets of disorganization left in my home. Most of the bigger projects have been accomplished, such as the garage, organization of the home office files and the like. But the little pockets of disorganization annoy me on a daily bases. So… to conquer the annoying little pockets, I am committing to cleaning out one cupboard, one closet, one self a day until these pockets are finished!! So today, is the pantry. Both boys arrived home yesterday from college and that means I have to keep food in the house! and a lot of it. After a major shopping at Trader Joe’s yesterday, (and by the way even the check out girl at TJ in Albuquerque told me that “you guys in Las Cruces need to start a letter writing campaign to finally get a store in LC” duhh, we’ve been trying, I have to stay more organized in the food department.

Arn't We Clever??

I missed watching the wedding live because me and five am do not get along, so I was trying to find the ceremony on you tube....well this is what I found! So well done and made me laugh!! enjoy!

SALSA

SALSA, originally uploaded by moreno.alejandrohina.

I took a traditional Mexican cooking class last summer at our local branch, and we learned to make many recipes. At our house, we are connoisseurs of salsa. It is almost in a separate food group for us, so when I tasted this version of salsa, that is soooo easy, I immediately took it home to let my youngest son try it. He loved it! I had forgotten about this recipe until I saw it on another cooking show and saw the guest making it. I made this for Easter weekend and it was consumed hungrily by my two college sons. Here is the recipe for our house salsa:

One tomato
half an onion
two jalapenos (depending on how hot you like your salsa, play with the ratios)

roast the jalapenos and remove the skin and seeds

boil the peeled onion with the tomato for 10 - 15 minutes until soft

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and add the liquid from the tomato and onions a little at a time until you like the consistency. add salt to taste.

Its that simple. yumm

Happy Easter!

easter sunrise, originally uploaded by vandirk.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Monday’s Quote

“We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised or we can live a full, complete life achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams.” Bob Proctor

I just think Arnold is the ultimate cool guy! Go get bruised this week!!

Inspirational Art

When I was in Santa Fe, I was exploring the plaza area and walked by the Evoke Contemporary Gallery and was stopped dead in tracks by the most amazing paintings. They are the paintings of Louisa Mcelwain. When it comes to art, I have discovered that I really like landscapes rather that paintings of people, and these paintings are everything I love in a painting! Color, movement, and Louisa truly captures the enchanting drama that we have in New Mexico! She paints plein Air from the back of a rigged up pick up, that supports her huge canvas'. The paint is so thick, that her signatures are not written, they are carved!

When I moved to New Mexico from California, the one thing I did miss is the ocean. Growing up on the beach and having the ocean as your backyard, the sea becomes a part of you. But I often think of the huge sky of New Mexico as kind of a replacement for the ocean. Always changing and in constant motion.

Louisa's tool of choice is the knife to "curb my ability to describe objects, and to move paint with velocity, articulate delicacy, and sensuous impasto. I strive to allow the beauty of the paint, moved by the impulse of the Creator's spirit which flows through me, to say something honest, deep and true about my experience of Nature, to make paintings that gratify the mind and nourish the soul." Yeah, nuf said....enjoy

Sorry for the blurry one, but I love the colors!

Loretto Chapel and the mysterious staircase

My husband and I had the opportunity to travel to Santa Fe last week and we stayed in The Inn at Loretto. Next door to the hotel is the Loretto Chapel. The Loretto Chapel is surrounded by the legend of the mysterious staircase. The chapel was built in 1872 and designed by a French architect Antione Mouly in the Gothic Revival style. In those days, it was common not to have a staircase that lead to the loft, because, the patrons would use a ladder, but because this chapel was going to used by nuns, and they wear long habits, they did not feel comfortable climbing a ladder. The solution was to build a staircase………

The Nuns prayed to St. Joseph for an intercession for nine days. At the end of those nine days, and shady looking stranger appeared. He told the nuns that he would build the staircase. He disappeared within the chapel for three months, and using a few very primitive tools, he constructed a spiral staircase for the nuns, and then he vanished. The original staircase did not have railings!! The nuns were so frightened that they had to descend from the loft on their hands and knees. It is also rumored, that because the staircase construction resembled a spring, it indeed acted like a spring when people climbed up and down! adding to the frightening experience of using the staircase. The railings were added a later date.