Oh Right... I'm Supposed To Study!

So I've posted about casseroles...

I've posted about crockpots..

About relationships, pets, and working out..

But I've never posted about the one thing that drove me to blogging.. I've never posted about being a student!

Students have to study right? I know, it sucks. I hate it. But I have found some awesome study tips and tricks along the way that I am going to share with you now.

Music

I work in radio. My life revolves around listening to the radio, listening to music or having background noise at all times. Needless to say, the silent study thing doesn't work for me, but neither does rocking out to Kelly Clarkson. Instrumentals help me a ton, and I've found that on 8tracks.com I can listen to premade playlists. Try the study+relax+instrumentals genre! Nothing is more soothing and yet gets you pumped as a piano rendition of Hall of Fame by The Script. Great, great study music.

Want new music and old school greats? Check out Southern Miss Radio and stream it live. Yes, this is completely biased because I work there, but it is also great to study to. I told you, I work in radio, and that's my place.

Study Techniques

There are tons of reading methods for you heavy-reading-burdened scholars. Personally, I've mastered the art of scanning the reading for graduate school, but that doesn't always work. I suggest the SQ3R method. It does take a lot of time, but it's worth it.

Flashcards work for more than just math. If you're having to study concepts (which I do, a lot) take the flashcard and write the name of the theory, concept, etc on one side and on the other side write everything you need to know about that subject. For example, if you're studying critical cultural theory (I have a test tonight :/ ), on one side of the card you'd write "hot medium." On the other side, you'd write "the medium is the message, Marshall MacLuhan. A hot medium is one that gives extensive data to the receiver without much interpretation or work from the receiver. Ex: television."
Run through those bad boys a few times, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll learn it.

Planning

Be organized. I can't even begin to tell you how important that is. Use different highlighters on your calendar for different classes, write everything down, and have different binder divisions or different notebooks for different subjects. Don't do like me and write things down on random loose sheets of paper.

Manage your time. Use a planner, schedule your breaks, and realize (for your own good) that you can't just spew forth a 20 page historical media research project with a proposal the day before it's due.
__________

Look, I'm a professional student. I've spent every single school year since I was five (I'm approaching 24) in school. I have learned that what once worked doesn't work anymore, that it continuously takes work, self-awareness, and organization to nail those grades. But if I could do it, you could. I know you could :) So get to the books, boo. You've got some studying to do.

Love as always,

Courtney :)

Super Spouses Must Super Take Care of Themselves! So Hit The Gym :(

When I got married, my body was in the best shape of my life. I had been working out almost every day, focusing mostly on the P90x Ab Ripper X. My dress fit beautifully,  draping where it should and clinging where it should.

Fast forward to now.

I just ate a Double Angus cheeseburger with curly fries and a large kool-aid from the campus choke-and-croak. As usual, I reminisce on the days of grabbing a salad after a rewarding workout, eating a banana between classes, and loving my body. Those days have been replaced by burgers, fries, and fleeting thoughts of joining the gym again and getting back to my long lost love.

Hubbers loves my body! He says I'm cute and curvy and he's proud of that... but I miss my abs. I don't really need to lose weight, just tone up. Siting here and bellyaching won't help my current situation, so this week, I'm joining the gym again.

I'm no beginner, but I feel like I should start from a beginner's level since it has been almost 9 months since I worked out. I decided to do a little research and see what I could find. Hoping to find realistic and manageable results, I found The Beginner Fitness Junkie. Angela does a great job of sharing her journey. Much like myself, she's a little reluctant to give up her favorite foods, but she's trying to make healthier choices that coincide with her workout routine.

I'm going to keep making the foods I make because I like them. I enjoy them, and Jeremy enjoys them. But I will also be on the lookout for some healthier snacks and smoothies which will also help with my workout. My Pinterest board "fitness" will keep you up to date on everything I'm pinning for consideration.

Until next time, my friends, all I can offer you is this piece of advice. If you don't like something, change it. YOU alone have the power to say "I'm not doing this anymore," and make the changes you need to your routine to get you back to where you want to be.

Love always,
Courtney

I Don't Do It Alone

Last night I had a moment of frustration. The laundry was done but we'd never actually gotten to the point of putting it away, the dog made a "mistake" in the carpet and the cat was having a great time terrorizing the dog. I had homework piled on top of my desk and halfway up the wall, and Jeremy and I were both just mentally and physically exhausted.

The homework thing had really gotten to me. At times I feel as if all the chaos in my house would not be there if I had not gone to graduate school. I needed to vent so before collapsing from exhaustion in my bed as Jeremy set up the weather radio, this is the conversation that happened with a friend that's out of town:

Me: I can't wait to see something other than this pavement jungle. I gotta get outta here. 

BFF: Yea no doubt lol

Me: I just need a break

BFF: I know it, you've been kicking all kinds of butt lately. 

Me: Well it comes with a price, a hard one. I'm tired. I feel like I having been showing much attention to my loved ones lately, the housework is lacking, my thoughts are scattered and Jeremy's bored. 

BFF: It's all going to be worth it, you know that, right? 

Me: I know... but nothing is really more important to me than a happy home and a happy husband. 

BFF: I know.. and what I also know is you being as successful as  you are and can be and will be makes him happy. He's proud of you.. we both are. 

Me: I know.. but I have equal pride in you guys and I fail to show it. 

BFF: Fail? Who said you do that? 

Me: I just don't feel like I show you guys how much I appreciate you. It's the little things, ya know? It means the world to me that Jeremy reminds me to eat breakfast (mornings are hectic, I often forget causing my hypoglycemia to kick into overdrive) and buys me Cadbury Cream eggs to surprise me. It warmed my heart when I fell asleep today and you reminded me to take my glasses off so they wouldn't break.  I love it when I cook and you and Hubbers fight over what's left. This is my own little family, you see? And I'd do anything I can for it. 

BFF: I know you would.. and we would do the same. You may not think you show appreciation but he sees it, I see it. You cook dinner after work, help him clean house after 10+ hours at school. It adds up. You're a great student, amazing wife, and the best friend/sister I could ask for. 

Me: Thank you ;) but I couldn't do it without help. 

BFF: Sure you could, you just don't have to :)

Do you see why I bust my butt so hard? My husband, my family, my friends.. they all support me like this. They. Are. Amazing. But I feel like I need to clear up a little detail.

I'm not a maid, nor am I treated like one. I clean house and cook for my husband because I want to. If I didn't, he'd do it, and he has when I failed. But I feel like my purpose as HIS wife, not just a wife, but HIS wife, is to do what I can everyday to show him how much I appreciate his hard work and how insanely in love I am with him. I'm not held with chains to the stove everyday. Jeremy and I actually split the chores.

Gallup did an interesting article on how spouses share the workload. You should check it out! You may find that it's not as black and white as most would think. It would make you see that the old fashioned wife and husband scenario is still the same.... and completely different at the same time.

If I cook, he washes dishes. If I sweep, he vacuums. If I walk the dog, he cleans the litter box. I clean the tubs, he does the counters. WE. SPLIT. EVERYTHING.

I couldn't be a super spouse without my super spouse! We meet in the middle and it makes us a team of Super Spouses.

Now I've given you a very deep look into my home life. What do you think? How do you share the chores? Do you ever get asked about how you feel regarding being the homemaker? Leave a comment below and we'll discuss it.

Be powerful, be precious, be patient.

Love as always,
Courtney

Chicken Fried Rice... Minus the Chinese Take Out.

Hubbers LOVES this recipe. Adores it. I try to make plenty for leftovers and that usually doesn't happen because he and my "brother in law" (Jeremy's best friend/brother, best man at our wedding) destroy it before the plates even hit the table.

You'll need:
1 can of carrots
1 can of peas
1 cup of rice
3 chicken breast
1 bottle of soy sauce
*eggs, scrambled
*green onion, diced
*zest of two oranges
*juice of two oranges

(**Means optional ingredients)

First things first, boil your rice. That's one cup rice, two cups water. Pour the rice and water in together, and bring it to a hard boil. Once it's boiling, cut the heat off, stir it, then put a lid on it. Let the steam work from there. This takes about 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, cook that chicken in the skillet. (I only used a few strips of chicken for a smaller amount. I like less chicken, you may add more.)

Next, combine all of your ingredients together. The peas should be drained as should the carrots. The chicken, once done, should be diced. Stir it all together so it looks like it does in the picture above. *If using optional ingredients, now is when you'd add the green onion, scrambled egg, and orange zest.*

Go ahead and heat up that skillet, wok, pan, what have you. I have an electric skillet that works wonders for this. 

Use max heat if using an electric skillet. 

It's not fried if there's no butter ya'll! Use about 2 tablespoons of butter to drop in that skillet. Paula Deen would use more, but we're not trying to lube up our arteries here. 

Throw that beautiful mess into the skillet once the butter has melted and sizzled. At this point we'll add the soy sauce, as much as you like (you won't use the whole bottle, hopefully. Taste it along the way. I like mine a little salty.) **If you're using the optional ingredients, add the orange juice here.

It's done when the excess juice and sauce have cooked into the rice. Enjoy this bit, kids, cause everyone is digging it!

Love as always, 

Courtney 

Easy Garlic Bread From Scratch

I promised you two recipes, here's the first.

This is the easiest garlic bread short of buying it from the freezer section. We've all tasted it, we know the freezer box garlic bread is good, but who doesn't want to just absolutely WOW friends at the dinner party? Besides, this is super easy and completely worth it. I got this from Food.com AND they have a feature that allows you to adjust the portion depending on how much you want to make. I only made one loaf of the artisan bread and that required no refrigeration, but you can use that website to go about it however you like.

Here's What I Did:

3/4 cup lukewarm water
3/8 tablespoon granulated yeast (2 packets)
3/8 tablespoon kosher salt or 3/8 tablespoon other coarse salt
1 5/8 cups flour, unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose (not strong)


I combined it all in my mixer with the dough hook attachment. If you don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer, my heart aches for you. But you can still do this by hand. My instructions include the mixer.

Add the yeast, warm water (straight from the sink worked for me), and salt. Let that sit for about 10 minutes which allows the yeast to work its magic, then add the flour. All at once, then set that mixer to 2 until the dough pulls from the side. 

When you get the dough off the hook, it should look like this. **PRO TIP coat your hands in flour, it keeps the dough from sticking to your fingers.** 

Next, roll that dough into a little ball. You'll want to cover the bowl for about two hours and let it set on the counter to rise. Go check the mail, run errands, handle business, let the dough be. 

Once the dough has risen in size, coat it in flour. I let that sit for a minute as I greased up the pan. The recipe didn't call for it, but it seemed like a good idea. 

Grease up that pan all nice and oily like...

Then manipulate that little ball into a long loaf. It looks tiny now but never fear, my dear, it shall rise. 

Now, this seems silly, but it works. Put that oven to 425 and add a broiler pan (or cake pan) full of water. Trust me, the steam keeps that bread nice and moist. 

As the oven heats, let that dough rise a little more. Coat it in olive oil and cut some slits in it. Mine weren't deep enough, but it made for a crispier crust. Then throw that baby in the oven! The recipe called for 30mins, but my oven only needed 25 and it got a little too brown.

Voila! Artisan bread.

Let it rest, my darling. Now, you could stop here and make a killer BLT... but I'm trying to impress dinner party friends with an Italian menu sooo...

I cut that hunky loaf into baguettes, or bites, or whatever you choose to call them. I covered them in butter and garlic salt, toasted them, then this is what happened...

For the love of all things joyful and true, this was some tasty garlic bread! BOOM!

And there you have it folks, tasty, easy, quick garlic bread. Or just sandwich bread. But my Lawd it was delicious!

Catching Up Part 2

As I told you all yesterday, there has been nothing regular about these last few weeks. In fact, complete and total chaos is starting to feel like the new norm! Today alone I have conducted massive research for a paper, finished a paper, started another paper, cleaned house, started supper, fixed lunch, walked the dog, and fought traffic on Hardy Street in Hattiesburg, MS. All of this took place before 2pm this lovely Friday... and Fridays are supposed to be my day off.

But now it's time to catch up on the other thing that has thrown us off lately.

February 10th, 2013.

Jeremy (also known as the hubs, my husband) and I were en route back home to Hattiesburg from his grandparents' house when I got a phone call from my Mama.

"Where are you?"
"About an hour from home, why?"
"Just pull over. There's a tornado where you live and I don't want you guys driving into it."

Now I knew the weather was bad, but I didn't think it was that bad. We had a friend at our place washing his clothes, so I called him.

"What's the weather doing?"
"Sirens are going off. We're (the friend and our cat. Very thoughtful of him to save the cat) in the bathroom, the weather is terrible."

I immediately began to panic. I told the hubs "stop for now, but get us home." We pulled over very briefly, but once the rain subsided we bolted for the Burg, the loving name for Hattiesburg.

As Jeremy is driving, both of our cell phones are being blown up. My mom, my stepdad, my dad, all on my phone. His dad, his grandparents, his sister, his co-workers, all on his phone. I turned by car into a mobile BellSouth station and answered all the calls with "yes, we're fine, what's happening there?"

My parents kept calling me, sending me text messages, and sending me links on Facebook to what we would not be able to imagine until we saw it ourselves. An EF-4 Tornado tore through the neighborhoods surrounding us, our apartment complex, then jumped over the highway and completely devastated Hattiesburg and Petal. News reports of complete devastation on the Southern Miss campus were churning in my stomach since I couldn't see it for myself. As we approached 49 South in Hattiesburg, we were redirected though non-affected residential areas to get to our apartment.

First pulling into our apartment complex, I had no idea what to expect. Entire roofs from neighboring buildings were gone. Pieces of billboard from the highway mixed in with the debris of annihilated houses, roofs, cars, trees, power lines and more. Thankfully, our building was untouched, with the exception of a tree branch on our neighbor's car. We were fine, but we had no power.

Long story short, we camped out to candlelight and an ice chest full of meat from our freezer. We waited for the news reports to roll in, we called family, and I mourned at the devastation bestowed to my beloved Southern Miss Campus.
Here are some videos and pictures of the devastation. Though it has been almost two weeks since this devastating tornado blasted its way through Hattiesburg and Petal, prayers are still welcome.


What happened next was a beautiful thing, but I'll tell you that later.

Elam Arms. USM former residence hall, roof gone, windows blown out, part of the building destroyed.

My apartment complex, this building took the most damage. Not livable, front of roof gone, side of the building gone, on the verge of collapse. All residents were relocated. 

Southern Miss from Elam Arms. Windows blown out, 75 trees along the front of campus, gone. What was once shrouded in beautiful trees is now completely open and can be seen straight over to the 49 south Highway.

An apartment building in my complex. Now condemned and beyond repair. No roof, water damage, massage structural damage, on the verge of collapse. 

Debris from a billboard and the debris from an apartment roof.

A Lot Has Happened... Catching up Part 1

For the most part, I'll make this short.

After my fourth post, I suffered from a ruptured ovarian cyst. It was painful, it was sucky, and I was off my feet for a little while.

One week to the day later, I went to the doctor thinking I had the flu. It wasn't the flu--it was sinusitis, bronchitis, and an ear infection in each ear. While still hurting from the cyst. Again, that knocked me off my feet.

**Author note. If you take Sudafed at 9pm, don't think you're going to sleep. I didn't. Instead, I watched two seasons of Community within 24 hours and then went comatose for about 12 hours.

After dealing with all that, catching up on school and work and financially recovering from not having my insurance yet (the cyst ruptured the day my insurance was supposed to activate), I fell away from the social media sphere for a while.

But I'm back...BOO-YAH!

I've learned in all this that blogging takes work, it takes time, it takes dedication--but it can't take you! Honestly, in order to remain at my Super-Student, Super-Spouse status, I've had to back away from the computer and focus on myself. Granted, this wasn't a very convenient thing, but when is everything convenient. Don't worry, I'll wait.

When I decided it was time to get back to the blogging sphere, I used {never}homemaker blog for inspiration. The post that's dedicated to bloggers keeps me going, and I look at it frequently, as should you.

I'm going to spend the next couple of blogs catching up on all that's been missing. I have a couple of new recipes I tried, I've danced (sorta), I've cried (you'll see why) and we adopted a puppy. So much has happened in our lives that I can't get it all in here. So stick around for the other parts of Catching Up.

As always,
Courtney

Strategy Saturday!

We have all been there... it's a random night of the week, your budget is blown, you're starving to death and you have no idea what to cook. You'd make hamburgers but you only have the family pack of meat, the rest will suffer freezer burn and you're fighting to figure out what to eat before just throwing in the towel and heading for the closest drive-thru Choke-n-Barf. Have we already mentioned the weirdo smell coming from the fridge? Yea, there's a smell... and it smells suspiciously of last week's tilapia surprise. You're stressed, you're tired, you're frazzled--yup, this sucks. So how do we prevent this? 

I call it Strategy Saturday. In the Ingle house, I pop out of bed around 7:30am (that's late for us), grab my calendar and notepad and kickstart the strategy for the week. What am I planning? MEALS. That was our smelly, frazzled, starving, sucky weeknights happen fewer and further between.

I remember the days living at home. I'd wake up on a Saturday and find Mama at the table, a notebook, cookbooks, and a hand drawn days of the week calendar. I didn't realize until I got married how important that Strategy Saturday would be.

You can take control of your busy Tuesday on Saturday, all by planning your meals accordingly. Here's how:

First, either grab a calendar or list the days of the week. I shop for two weeks, so I set aside the next two weeks on the calendar. Sit down and plan every supper for two weeks. Once you've done that, make your grocery list around the meals. This is meal planning, folks... and it saves you time and anxiety.

Remember to consider your schedule when you plan meals. I have a late afternoon class on Monday, a night class on Tuesday, a late afternoon class on Wednesday and work every day of the week. So my meal planning looks like this:

Monday- Poppyseed Chicken

Tuesday- Crockpot Meatloaf

Wednesday-Chicken Fried Rice

Thursday-Date Night!

Friday-Pork Steak

And you get the point...

This will save you time, money, and frustration. Once you've made your menu and grocery list, shop accordingly. When you get home, plan accordingly. Casseroles can be put together a day in advance and refrigerated until you're ready to cook. Crockpot recipes cook while you're at work. Sounds easy, right? I'm not the only one.. I promise this works! Check out what blogger Jen Jones does for meal planning and more. Once the shopping and meal planning are done, clean house! And I mean, really clean. Throw away the tilapia surprise from the fridge, sweep, mop, CLEAN. That way this week you can relax for once because you deserve it!

Tackle it, Super Spouses. Welcome to Strategy Saturday!

Courtney 

Welcome All Struggling Super Spouses!

We are students, employees, homemakers, spouses, moms, sisters, support groups, soundboards, chefs, cheerleaders and the list goes on. How do we balance it? How do we wear so many hats at one time?

Welcome to Crockpots, Casseroles, and College. Here we will gather together to exchange ideas, give support, suggestions, and learn to balance everything we have going on. I'm going to be sharing recipe ideas with you that will make cooking a lot easier on your busy self, as well as sharing homemaking and managing tips. Together we can go from "struggling" to "Super Spouse!"

A little about myself: I'm a wife, homemaker, student, executive producer, friend, Sunday school teacher, party host, cat-mama, daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, advisor, boss, employee, and more! When I got married 6 months ago, my husband Jeremy had no idea what he was getting himself into. We were swimming in the changes for a while, but eventually I learned a few tips of the trade... tips I'm going to share with you. I'd learn to love more from you, so check out the Hit Me Up page.

To share some of your awesome stories and tips with me you can email me, comment, send me a tweet or whatever suits your fancy! I'm looking forward to all of us to move from "struggling" to "Super Spouse" together.

Super Spouses Unite!

Courtney

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Email: crockpots(dot)casserole(dot)college(at)gmail(dot)com