Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Yummy Yummy in My Tummy

I thought that this recipe was so yummy that it deserved its own post! So hit up your favorite farmers market & treat yourself to this dish today...actually tomorrow because you want the flavors to mix overnight!

Blueberry Corn Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing
6 ears of fresh sweet corn cooked
2 cups blueberries
1 small cucumber
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 jalapeƱo, seeded & chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Fashion Challange

Fashion. For some fashion is a chore. They dress because they have to to avoid arrest or embarrassment. To some, shopping is an addiction. To fill a need in their life. To me, fashion and shopping are hobbies. I love sporting new fashion trends, scoring a great sake, having lots of options. In the past several months, my life has changed drastically & I thought, "What if I gave up fashion & clothes shopping for 1 year & utilize my time & resources elsewhere?" I am not opposed to fashion & shopping. I just didn't believe that I could give it up for a year. So I decided to prove it to myself. 1 year. No buying clothes for 1 year. July 20th is the lucky date... Can I do it?!?!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

For true lovers of reading only:


Have you ever finished a book and felt an ache in your heart because you missed the characters already?  Who says that characters in books can’t become your friends?  Friends are those people who come into your life, teach you about life, help you to understand yourself alittle more, about the world around you.  Some friends are in your life for a few days, some friends are life long.  Some are characters in books… and that’s ok.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Personal Giving Challange: Love 146


One of my goals for my 30th year was to choose an organization who is making a change in the earth to support and feature on my blog to raise awareness of some of the incredible work that is being done to fight the injustices in our modern world. I have always been a big believer in the principle of giving, but this year I wanted to challenge myself even more.

January’s Choice: Love 146

Did you know that there are more slaves in the world today than at any other time in history?!?!
This is not just a problem in other countries, this is happening right here in the US of A! Right on our own doorstep and unfortunately very little is being done about the problem.

Enter Love 146. I have known the founders of this organization for a very long time- shared a
flat with Desirea and traveled across Eastern & Western Europe with her. Rob Morris is my favorite motivational speaker, has a heart of gold and has an interracial family that is
such an inspiration to me. I used to nanny for Lamont’s kids and have always loved chatting with him about social justice issues.

Love 146 is an organization whose goal is the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through prevention and aftercare. It protects children around the US, Asia, & Europe by developing and sustaining targeted prevention projects in high risk communities. Their mission is to defend the rights of the vulnerable, through advocacy, prevention, and effective action. Love 146 restores hope to survivors through wholistic aftercare and training caregivers to empower,
educate, and provide viable employment opportunities equipping them to transition back into communities.

Check out the amazing work they are doing at www.love146.org!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The One with the Unofficial Book Club!



I have had several people talk with me about wanting to have a “book club” with me. So I decided to go ahead and start my own very unofficial book club. The first book I am reading is….

“The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. This book has been recommended to be by several of my loved ones who have read it and been inspired and I can’t wait to dig into it!

If you would like to read along with me an discuss, give thoughts, talk it out, etc, share with me through this blog, through Facebook, or through my e-mail at erinberry81@hotmail.com. This is organic so we can create a venue that works for us.

Happy reading!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Some Things Never Change


I am a big fan of personal development. I work hard in my life to find ways to improve and lead a more productive & peaceful life. But there are some things I have decided to embrace since I am 30 and they haven’t gone away. These things include, but limited to the following:

1. Crying when I say good bye to loved ones. I love the life I live, BUT it comes with some drawbacks. One of them being that I will never live close to everyone I love which brings up the issue of having to say goodbye. I never have been good at goodbyes, but I have started making myself not avoid them as much because of the tears that tend to escape from my eyes when I say them. IF I am able to hold them in while saying the actually goodbye, trust that they are flowing as I walk away. I decided on a recent trip when I was leaving my family and the waterworks were slightly out of control that this is one of those things I need to just embrace as it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

2. Not packing light. No need to give me all your tips and suggestions- trust me, after traveling as much as I have in my life, I already know them! I have heard them all. I even spent a whole summer when I was 14 with only 32 pounds of stuff (though it MIGHT have been slightly more, the guy weighing my bag had a crush on me and let a few pounds slide) including clothes, toiletries, laundry detergent, a shovel, and winter jacket so I know that I CAN pack light. BUT I will never again be a light packer. First of all, I need to look nice, second of all, I refuse to wear ugly shoes. My dad used to tell me a man should travel with me before he marries me to know what he is getting into, but on this last trip when he was heaving my seriously overly heavy bag into the back of Rusty to take me to the airport, he said, “You know Elizabeth Taylor traveled for
years and never packed light either.” I finally felt like I was understood for the first time. Tear.

3. Wearing my emotions on my sleeve: This kind of goes along with #1, but it is not always just at goodbyes. If I feel the need to cry, I can’t stop it. This is very unfortunate in certain situations like at jobs, when someone is trying to manipulate me and I should be bluffing, or when someone else is having an actually crisis and I am just disappointed. BUT it can’t be helped and
thus after 30 years, I am just going to embrace it. And warn anyone around me that you might have to too. This also means that if I find something funny, I have a VERY hard time suppressing my laughter which can be unfortunate when it exposes my extremely immature sense of humor. If someone talks about balls, cracks, doing it, or if anyone accidently lets out a fart when they were trying to hold it in, I can’t contain myself.

4. I am and always will be a hopeless romantic: Last year, my boss used me as a guinea pig for some personality tests that he wanted to use for a bigger group. I took the first one and when the
results came and the first sentence was, “You are a romantic to your core” I quickly wrote him that this was a great and very accurate test. : )

5. I will never be able to walk by a cotton candy stand and not be able to resist it. Unless it is pre-made or purple. But if it is fresh, fluffy, pink or blue (or in the case of when I was in China- white), I have to buy it! I have had eaten cotton candy in almost every country and city I have visited.

There you have it folks.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challange

For those of you who have been asking about how my 52 books in 52 weeks challange last year went the results are in....

Grand total of books I read in 2011 was 44 books which I was very excited about especially since I had 2 jobs at all times, did lots of travel (unlike some people who do most of their reading while traveling, I CAN NOT read while I travel!), and upheld a very active social life. The only thing is, my self still is pretty full so I need to keep reading! : )

Here is the list:
1. Leadership & Self Deception- The Arbinger Institute
2. King’s Ransom- Jan Beazely & Thom Lemmons
3. The Sacred Romance- Brent Curtis & John Eldredge
4. Tomorrow’s Treasure
5. Love and Respect- Dr. Emercon Eggerichs
6. Shadows of Lancaster County- Mindy Starns Clark
7. The Road of Lost Innocence- Somaly Mam
8. Elementary My Dear Watson- Mindy Starns Clark
9. The 3rd Culture Kid Experience; Growing Up Among Worlds- David C Pollock & Ruth E Van Reken
10. East of the Sun- Julia Gregson
11. A Steadfast Surrender- Nancy Moser
12. Poke the Box- Seth Godin
13. The Looking Glass- Richard Paul Evans
14. The Time Piece- Richard Paul Evans
15. Before I Wake- Dee Henderson
16.Les Miserables- Victor Hugo
17. Life as A Day Maker- David Wagner
18. Escape- Carolyn Jessop
19. While Mortals Sleep- Jack Cavanaugh
20. Freefall- Kristen heitzmann
21. Sisterhood Everlasting
22. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
23.Water for Elephants
24. Thunder of Heaven- Ted Dekker
25. My Name is Memory- Ann Brashares
26. Heaven’s Wager- Ted Dekker
27. The Remember Box- Patricia Sprinkle
28. I Still Dream About You- Fannie Flagg
29. A Shred of Evidence- Kathy Herman
30. Winter Passing- Cindy McCormick Martinusen
31. The Seduction of Water- Carol Goodman
32. Firefly Lane- Kristin Hannah
33. True Courage- Dee Henderson
34. Falling Angels- Tracy Chevalier
35. For Such a Time- Elyse Larson
36. So Shall We Stand- Elyse Larson
37. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff… And it’s All Small Stuff- Richard Carlson
38. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress- Rhoda Janzen
39. The Secret of Sarah Revere- Ann Rinaldi
40. City of the Dead- T.L. Higley
41. Black Heels to Tractor Wheels- The Pioneer Woman
42. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family- Richard Carlson
43. Morning is a Long Time Coming- Bette Greene
44. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins