Black Eyed Peas and New Year's Wishes

Is it possible for 2012 to be as freakishly awesome as 2011 was?  I'm sitting here watching my almost-one-year-old fling blueberries and strawberries all over the kitchen at 7:00 AM on my day off, and I can't help but reflect on what a joy the past year has been.  2011 brought us the best gift of all, our daughter; a long-term goal, we bought our first house; and positive moves at both our jobs.

2012, the challenge has been extended...do you accept?  Can you possible be better than the best year ever? We will see.  To help you along, we in the Bankey household have taken the extra precaution of ingesting black eyed peas.  All in the name of 'good luck' for you.  Yes, we spiced them up.  Yes, they were good.  Yes, we thoroughly enjoyed them. Now it's your turn to make it a great year.  2012, you're on!

Here is Corgan eating her New Year's black eyed pea.  She loves black beans and red beans, but for some reason isn't a huge fan of the one that can look back at you.  She ended up eating half of it, and since she's so tiny, this should cover her in the good luck arena for the year.  Here's to hoping.

After Corgan went to sleep (at 6:25 PM!), Stuart and I started cooking our New Year's Day meal.  We made rib eyes, sauteed spinach with garlic and lemon, and serrano spiced black eyed peas. Nummers!  What Stuart will never tell you is that he can cook.  He tricked me for the first few years we were dating into thinking that he couldn't cook anything worth eating.  His first meal in his first apartment was microwaved, buttered hominy from a can.  It was all a ruse! He can cook people!

What doesn't say 'Happy New Year' like giant honkin' slabs of red meat?

Everything sizzlin' away on the stove.  Yes, we know we should've done the steaks on the grill, but we were too lazy to buy propane.  You can get mad at me later.

End result: a scrumptious meal with a great bottle of wine, and yes that is homemade tarragon compound butter topping the steak.  It was a great way to bring in the New Year, and to celebrate the great year that we just completed.

In Your Face!

My daughter Corgan's 1st birthday is a week away, and I've been going through all the pictures and videos that we have of her in preparation for the day.  I can't believe how far she's come and how fast she has grown up!  And now for the obligatory question that every mom asks herself: "How did I get to be the mother of a one year old!?!?"

I pulled all the videos (yes, there are 60 videos) off of the Flip camera, and quickly spotted a trend.  The moment that Corgan became mobile, either crawling or walking, it became impossible for us to video tape her doing anything.  Why you might ask? Just take a look...

 

 

 

A Christmas of Firsts

This year was a special year for us.  It was Corgan's first Christmas, our first Christmas in our first house, and the first joint Piedfort/Bankey Christmas.  It was a mad house, but we had such a great and wonderful time.  Everyone showed up early for Christmas breakfast (Dad made biscuits and gravy!), and we sipped on mimosas.  I made my tarragon scrambled eggs, and apparently Philip (Stuart's brother) had to ask if they had gone bad.  He'd never seen green flecks in scrambled eggs before! Poor Philip.

My brother Chase and I makin' bacon!

Everyone brought their gifts over to our place to open, so of course we had way too many packages everywhere!  There were nine adults and the first granddaughter, and that makes for a lot of gifts.

Here's a picture that needs no explanation:

Check out the shirts!

The best time of the day was watching Corgan!  She had a crazy bad cold, so she wasn't in the greatest mood, but she was precious none the less.  She was actually more excited for the toys than the boxes and paper, which I hear is not normal.  She got a stocking stuffer of Grover from Sesame Street that sings Jingle Bells when you push his belly.  She couldn't get it to sing herself, so every time he stopped she would get all mad and do her fake cry.  It was adorable!

Corgan, her Grover, and Grandma

And lastly, just for fun, here is a peak into the crazy life that is the Piedfort/Bankey clan:

A Call to Action

The other day I was reminded of one of the best life lessons that exists. I would go so far as to say that this story might be what Curly was talking about. You know Curly. The old, wrinkled cowboy in City Slickers that scared the everlovin'-bejesus out of Billy Crystal's character. During one scene Curly shared with Billy that he knows 'this', and he holds up his pointer finger: 'the one thing', 'the secret of life.' We never find out what Curly thinks is the secret of life, but I like to think that this story I just re-read is what he was talking about. What is it you might ask? The Tortoise and the Hare. For those of you not so familiar with the story, here it is (as quoted from ChildhoodReading.com)


_______________________________________________________________
The Tortoise and the Hare - One of Aesop's Fables

Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: "Who do you think you are? There's no denying you're swift, but even you can be beaten!" The hare squealed with laughter.

"Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there's nobody in the world that can win against me, I'm so speedy. Now, why don't you try?"

Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. "Take your time!" he said. "I'll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute."

The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise's face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he'd be first at the finish. But the hare's last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.

"Slowly does it every time!" he said.
______________________________________________________________

The moral of the story? Slow and steady wins the race. I've already shared my 'slow and steady' story: getting debt free. Stuart and I worked our tails off for 3 years to achieve a goal that many said was unattainable, but we stayed focused on the finish line and accomplished our goal. We beat the hare.

A Call to Action:

What is your 'slow and steady' story? What have you done in your life that makes you the tortoise? Or, if you haven't done such a thing, what have you done that makes you the hare? Submit your full stories, regardless of length, and I will post them as 'guest bloggers'. One of my favorite blogs (Fatherhoody) has guest bloggers all the time and I love the idea. If you know me and know my email you can submit your story that way as well.

Simplicity

So I've been having trouble figuring out what to write on my 'blog'. I keep coming up with ideas, but the then I don't think that I actually want to write about it. Then I think I figured out why I'm having issues: I made it too specific. This is supposed to be about new beginnings and the unfinished business of life. Why did I make it so specific? I thought it would make a cute title :)

Well, in the true spirit of things, I'm going to change it. Instead I want to write about whatever I want to write about, whenever I want to write about it. This is my blog, and I'm gonna do it (but the name will stay the same).

Ironically, this post is about a new beginning. Every year about this time, a whole bunch of people around the world do a really bizarre thing: we give up something for 40 days in order to refocus our intentions and focus on our faith. We have a big party on Shrove Tuesday (pancakes and yummy goodness), then we take on a discipline of giving something up, or taking something on. This year, my husband is giving up eating meat (which in turns makes me give it up since I cook), and I'm giving up DVDs. Since we've been on the Dave Ramsey program we haven't had cable, and we don't own rabbit ears, so the only TV entertainment I have are my movies and TV series on DVD. I'm addicted. I like having the noise on in the background, but it makes me highly unproductive. This year, without TV of any sort, I hope to get in better shape, read more, write more (did I mention that I'm writing a novel?), and in general regrasp my intellegence. Beginning on Wednesday the 17th of February I will begin the annual Lenten Journey that I have taken on every year that I can remember. Some years I make it the whole 40 days, some years I fall short (like the year I gave up caffeine). Will I make it this year? I know the suspense is killing you, but you'll just have to stay posted and find out :)