Seven random thoughts on the 7th...

1.  Today is my little Catie-bug's 9th birthday.  NINE!  Oh my goodness.  I took her present over earlier.  

They were going to go to the movies this afternoon to see Maleficent and then dinner out.  She asked if she could skip the movie to spend the day with me.  Awwww.  I put her off till tomorrow...I didn't want to throw a monkey wrench into their plans, and I knew she would regret not seeing the movie with everybody else.  And we can spend tomorrow together doing whatever she wants.

2.  I am starving.  My stomach is growling.  The blessing and curse of using the slow cooker is that it smells SO good all day long.  I'm trying a new recipe for beef & broccoli today.  I got a late start on putting it in, so I took the short cut of browning the meat first...love being able to do that all in one pot.

Which reminds me to say that this is not in any way a paid endorsement...I just adore my Ninja slow cooker.  I love its non-stick liner.  I love that in addition to the low and high slow-cooking settings, it has low, medium, and high stove-top settings, and can be set to any oven degree setting needed if you want to use it as an alternative to your oven.  I cooked a meatloaf and baked potatoes in it that way just last week.

I don't think the high stove-top setting is high enough, but that's my only complaint.  It spent the winter with me in Kentucky, and I was so happy to have it there.

3.  I just finished reading another book from my goals list.  

 

I really enjoyed it.  Of course I've been binge watching Life Below Zero lately, so it has put me in the right mood.

4.  We are still enjoying the muffins I baked last week, and they are so yummy...warmed up or just straight out of the fridge.

5.  My sleep patterns are completely turned around.  I am awake till 4am and then sleep till noon.  Kind of cuts down on productivity.

6.  The extent of my creativity lately is tiny...literally.  It started with a drawing I saw of a little knitting gnome (see below)...then I saw a little cork gnome on Pinterest...and I came up with this...

Just a prototype.  I'm still in the experimental phase.  I need to find some wooden toothpicks and beads to make his little knitting needles instead of the straight pins.

7.  This month marks the 7th bloggisversary of Four Miles North of Nowhere.  I'll be announcing a giveaway in a couple of days.  Be sure to watch and enter.