Sugar combatant

Happy Halloween Day!

My kids are so sugared up from the last two days of festivities, how about yours?
I am determined to get some vegetables in their little bodies in order to try to counteract the sugar intake from all of the unsupervised eating here lately.

Whoa, that really makes me sound like the food Nazi that I am! Hee hee hee.

Truly the rule is :
When you are at home, 90% of the time we are gonna be trying to make really excellent healthy choices. When you are out and about it is up to you what you eat and drink. Eat what is served and be gracious.
And please don't lecture people on the evils of McDonald's or trans-fat!!
If it comes up in conversation, or you are writing a blog post about it...when then let 'em have it!!!

On a side note...
The other day I took lunch to my 7 year old daughter at school. The other family we were eating with just happened to mention the infrequent trips to McDonald's they might make in a pinch. All of a sudden my daughter started kinda vibrating next to me. I looked down and saw her screwing up her cute little bespectacled face and clenching her little hands...
...in and effort not to give a food lecture!!!!
It was a really mature (and cute) decision on her part!
After chatting a bit more with this family, we learned that they are a homemade healthy food kind of family as well, and that Micky D's is a last ditch chance to eat on a crunched time budget.
It was a great opportunity to talk to her (and myself) about not making snap judgments on peoples food choices.
I personally still won't be making the drive through the big golden arches...it has been so long and I might not live through such an adventure! In fact, it is hard for me to even walk in to one to visit the Redbox movie rental place. I feel some sort of betrayal to my conscience or something. Ha ha ha ha...actually, I am pretty serious about that in a ridiculous sort of way!
Food Nazi!!

So, I am headed down to the kitchen now to chop up some carrots and celery...
(and normal people would also claim that onion would be appropriate here, not me...blech)
...into tiny little pieces to hide in my chili which we will be having for lunch!

May the force be with you as well as you try to combat the sugar rush which hangs around until that particular candy bucket is empty!!!

When someone uses the "may the force be with you" comment in their writing about sugar, you must know that they are tending on the dramatic side...right??? You can sense that, right???

Are you using the force to sense it??

"Proud of you I am" says Yoda!!

Okay, this has gone downhill fast...gotta go chop!!

Just...nothing!

I don't have time to write about what I want to write about today, so it is going to be a random thoughts day!
Proceed at your own risk of time wasted!

I got an extra workout today, yes I did.
My son finally brought home a library book that needs to be returned.
He remembered it at the bus stop so I had to carry it on my whole walk!!
Extra load=extra workout.
I am just feeling so fit!!

I relish the sound of fallen leaves crunching beneath my shoes!
On the other hand, I get the heebie jeebies when a bug is crunched beneath my shoes.

I like relish on my hotdog.
Relish and mustard and chili!

I am making chili this week. Well as soon as I get back to the grocery store and get some meat to put in it.
I made vegetable soup earlier this week and almost got boo'd out of the house for it not having meat in it.
"Where is the meat?" they said.
"There is no meat, it is vegetable soup!"
"Vegetable soup??? How could you do this to us??"
Well, truly I thought that bowl of stuff in the freezer had meat in it and was relying on that for the meat.
I explained this to my family and also let them know that I did use beef stock as the base.

They were not impressed.
I enjoyed it!

When I was a little girl I just loved horses.
I dreamed of them, I drew them, I read books about them, I watched movies about them.
My daughter has this same propensity toward horses.
I think it is genetic!

I made the Tres Leches cake from the Pioneer Woman blog the other day.
Easy, especially with a mixer.
I truly did not think I would enjoy it, because of the interesting soggy nature of it, but decided to make it anyway, just to try something different.
I gotta tell you, I really like it!!
And, more crazy than anything...all three of my kids liked it!
But they did not like it enough to eat a full serving of vegetable soup in order to have it for dessert!

My husband is super awesome and I love him!!
Wow, I realize that came out of nowhere, but it is true and it hit my brain so I typed it.

I don't type everything that hits my brain.
Often I type stuff that hits my brain, then delete it.
This is best for all of us!

My favorite number is 8.
I don't know why.
It is a mystery to me, like numbers in general.

We are going camping soon.
I am working on my positive attitude about this adventure.
Actually I am working on working on my positive attitude about this adventure.

I have three rulers, 2 markers, 3 pencils and one sharpie sitting here on the second shelf of my desk.
Huh! I wondered where those rulers were!

I have 2 more minutes to write.
I set a time limit some days.
Well actually my schedule sets a time limit for me some days.

My goal for today is to make another round of pumpkin bread to see if I can tweak it to suit my liking.
We shall just see if that happens!!
45 seconds.
Oh the pressure.
What can I say?
28 seconds.
I have frozen up here....
oh my I am down to 15 seconds.
now 5...
done!

Warning!

STOP!!!
Don't just go out touching any old thing you read about in some random blog!!

Yeah, see these seeds...

...the beauties from the previous post.

This may be the one time when I should have done some research and didn't for lack of time.

Here is what I found out after hearing from two people that these are poisonous.

"A chemical in the plant called cycasin is toxic and often causes permanent liver damage as well as neurological damage if enough of the poison is absorbed by the body. "

Don't worry we are all fine here. We didn't choose to gnaw on them or make special soup stock hoping for a gorgeous orange color to thrill us. Just looked at 'em and planted 'em.
So please people do your research before you go eating random things from your neighbors yard okay??
Seriously though, dogs sure do love to chew on anything and everything...and this would be one of those things to keep away from them.

Now on to another even more serious note!!!

I must caution you not to attempt to make caramel apples at the precise moment you begin to crave them especially when it is after 7 in the evening and you have no prior experience with making caramel apples.

I must also warn you that those simple clear cellophane wrappers on the caramel of death squares that I bought are so frustrating to get off of the candy that I almost gave up the whole project before it was even partially underway.
Luckily though I didn't have to, seeing as how I did in fact spring for one bag of caramel bits.
I snickered at this convenience wondering just who is so lame as to not be able to open those simple little cellophane wrappers. Really!!!
Get the bits, trust me on this.
If you are gonna buy caramel
...which for the most of you,
I know you are, 'cause you roll your eyes at me when I talk about making my own at home,
just pay the extra .50c and buy the bits!!

See, it says it right there on the package but I was too stubborn and proud to pay heed.

"Unwrapped for easy melting" yeah, yeah...I see it now.


I must also advise you to warn your immediate family that you are in fact heating bits of caramel and chunks of caramel in the same bowl and that no you haven't lost your mind and put in a can of beanie weenies to heat!!

I guess behind the door of the microwave, while rotating this could be mistaken for beanie weenies.
But why in the world would I have that at my house and why would I be heating it up at 7:45 at night after making a wonderful soup for supper??
You can't make stuff like this up, this is real life people.

I think maybe the only thing I got right about this entire process is getting the sticks into the apples.

Uhhhh, I actually didn't put the sticks into the apples, my son did.

I had high hopes and a sincere desire for lovely sweet and tangy caramel apples. I wanted it to happen instantly and I wanted to drizzle chocolate on them in beautiful long strands.
Ha ha hah ahahhhah ahahhhha.

You know how you can step into work on something but you just feel off!
I tend to ignore this sensation and press on.
I shouldn't have pressed on!!

See how I put the pretty apple at the front and the "oops why isn't that chocolate sticking and why is it running down and pooling on the wax paper" apple way in the back!?!

These were a disaster-ish experience.
I will hold off my final decision until after I have had the chance to taste one.
They are supposed to cool for about an hour and a half, which puts me eating death on an apple on a stick right around 10 pm!

What??? I ask you...feeling your strong accusation at such things.
It is a treat, not a part of a regular meal plan.
I don't have to justify my caramel apple issues to you!!

Oh....look at the time.
It is 10:02.
Guess that means I can go sample an apple now!!
teee hee heee hee.

Mmmmmm! Just what I wanted!
Please seek a caramel apple tutorial elsewhere as mine is not likely to be helpful...
...at all.

Male or Female?

Take a look at this plant!

It is in my next door neighbors yard.


It is hiding a huge secret!


Take a closer look, can you see it yet?




Come on I will take you closer still.



See the center there!
It is a rounded out bulbous fuzzy area.



Come on, even closer and look inside.



When the layers of fuzziness are peeled back, you find these spectacular orange seeds.





A whole bunch of orange seeds!!

They are also covered with the pale yellow fuzz.


My 10 year old is holding a group of these seeds.
Some he had already rubbed the fuzz off of, but the others still have a bit on them.

My son, being the kid he is, took one of those wonderful seeds and planted it right away.

Come to find out this is a female Sago Palm.
I guess I knew some plants were male and female, but not all of them give us so much to take notice of.

Why am I just now, after 40 years of living giving notice to this you ask??


Well, a friend brought over a few Sago Palms to our place.
Apparently, they produce babies as well as seeds. What??
How does that happen?
Well seeing as how I don't have time for research we just have to take it for what it is.
They do in fact make little offsprings which show up and can be transplanted.


We planted 2 in the front yard...


...and three by the pond.

I just can't help but wonder if any of them are female.
And, how long will I have to wait to find out.
And when I do find out, will I remember enough to care?

Well, there you have it folks, just a little piece of what is going on around here.

I am working on perfecting a pumpkin bread recipe to my liking, and a pumpkin ale spiced bread as well.
Oh, and caramel apples!!
I just don't know if I have the guts to make an attempt at my own caramel again, so I will admit now that I bought those little wrapped squares.
I am human after all.
And, it is a treat, not a daily part of a meal plan.
And, while unwrapping the caramels may take some time, burning pot after pot of sugar kinda gets to ya too.
Ahhhh ha ha ha, look at me justifying my caramel purchase to you!!
We shall see how the week goes!

Exclamation Point

I was not going to write this morning.
However, I went out to the pond to feed the fish, as I usually do and had to share what has happened with our flowers!

First of all, look at this.

It is a new stalk of buds coming up. On Monday it was a mere inch out of the base you see there. On Tuesday 4 inches, and just look at it today!
I thought my kids were growing fast, but this beats that for sure!!

Now, remember those crazy big centers which seemed so odd to me.
They BUST out and become yet another branch with even more flowers!!
LOOK!!
(Bad photo sorry, in a rush here!!)


Now check this out...

As you go farther up the stalk those centers choose to be this beautiful clump of yellow pieces.
Fantastic!!!
I thought you would want to know, so there ya go!!

Wow!! I sure did use a lot of exclamation points today!!!
Well, it is because I am excited!!!
Little things like this in my little world make me a little happy!!!
Okay, a lot happy.
I choose to live life like that, it's just my way.

And ya know what else?? This duo of plants right here makes me happy too!!

They are heart shaped and happily colored and they grow at an unbelievable rate too!!
Hey...
...have a great Friday in your little world too!!

Oat-ey Peanut Butter Cookies

Here they come people!!
Hang on for the amazingly long awaited peanut butter cookie recipe!!!
Click HERE for the printable and all the correct measurements.
I feel that I must warn you...
This is a double recipe, so you will have lots of cookies.
Feel free to share, or be stingy and cut the recipe in half... if you can live with yourself under those circumstances.

I am not much of a peanut butter gal myself, tending to steer more toward chocolate, but...
These are YUM!!!

Though I went to the store to get peanut butter, I did not think about my brown sugar stash!
I was a good half a cup shy of what was needed so I did this little trick I remember reading about somewhere.
I added just a touch of maple syrup to my regular cane sugar.
Now this is more commonly done with Molasses, but I can't stand the taste of the stuff, so it doesn't make an appearance in my house.
100% pure Grade A Maple Syrup was my stand in.

Really the best thing to do is to just have enough dark brown sugar for the recipe.
Which by the way is 11/4 cup.

First things first with most cookie recipes is to cream the butter and sugar.
In this case we get a double doozy with that creaming... bringing in two butters and two sugars! How fun is that??
When those are good and creamed add in 4 eggs, one at a time, incorporating after each egg.
And last of the wet stuff...vanilla!! 4 teaspoons worth.



Here is a rather gross looking photo!!

Ha, well it is the creamed ingredients with an extra half cup of crunchy peanut butter thrown in for good measure!! By extra I don't really mean extra. Since it is crunchy I didn't want it in the mixer while I was doing all the creaminess creaming, so it got put in after that so I didn't have to listen to those chunks beating against the sides. Don't you just love the whump whump whump sound of the mixer going around in that butter. Pay attention, you just might!
I like the occasional peanut in each cookie, my son...not so much.
Can't please everyone all the time, right?


Next you are gonna measure out the dry ingredients.

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups White Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
AND

Oats!!

I suppose you could use quick cooking oats, but I wanted them finer than that so I started with old fashioned oats and then pulverized them!!

I put them in my tiny little food processor and hit the button til they looked more like this.


Throw the oats in with the other dry ingredients and stir well to combine.
Next add the dry ingredients to the wet ones mixing until combined.

Then you will have a soft but clinging together kind of dough. It is not firm, but it does hold together well.

I have not found a need to refrigerate this dough at all before baking as with some other cookie recipes...it is good to go, straight from mixing.
I used my medium scoop to put the dough balls on the baking stone...which is my baking surface of choice.
I suppose if I had some silpat and a metal cookie sheet I might just use that, but I sure do love how my cookies turn out on my stone. (Hearken back to my old Pampered Chef days...wow, that was like 16 years ago and that above is my original stone that I took to all my parties.)

Hey listen...flatten the cookies before you put 'em in the oven.
Just do it, I know it is an extra step but the get really puffy if you don't and you will want to put the yummy icing on nice flat cookies!! So do it, okay?




Ugghhh, this photo is awful. I was in the middle of 5 things and couldn't concentrate on how it looked...my deepest apologies!!

It is the cookies right out of the oven. They need to move to a cooling rack for a bit to await the icing!

Now that icing is simply 1 part peanut butter to 2 parts powdered sugar, with some heavy cream to make it the right consistency.
Make it spreadable and easy to work with, not drippy or stiff.
If you don't have heavy cream, then by all means stop what you are doing and go get some...it is needed for so many things...or just use half n half. I suppose plain old milk would do as well, but where is the fun in that???

OOooooohhhhhhh finally, done cookies!!

Did you notice that I actually frosted the bottom of those cookies?
It makes them look upside down to me.
Upside down frosted oat filled peanut butter yumminess cookies...maybe that should be the name?!?
Nah, I will stick with what I have got.


Nutter Butterish, soft and chewy peanut-y goodness cookies!!
That was just another description for you, not another crazy long name.

Enjoy!!

Cookies, almost!!

Peanut Butter Cookie Day!!!

Well I just spent 5 minutes searching for the photos I took of the Peanut Butter Cookies.
It was some time ago, so the confusion is merited!

I can find them in one part of my computer, but not the part that hooks to blogger!
Ahhh, now 13 minutes wasted. Sometimes I do so wish I were a computer geek and able to figure such things out.
I wouldn't be a good computer geek, I am way geekier in other ways though! I got the geek covered!

So, no photo of the cookies, which is fine for me because the original cookie I made was a sandwich cookie, and really the richness of this cookie makes eating just one almost impossible in the sandwich form.

This recipe came about because my oldest child (and husband to for that matter) was whining desperately for Nutter Butter Cookies.
I heartily refused, reminding them that it is firmly in the "kill your kid" food category.
Oh, I haven't used that term before have I?? hee hee.
I try not to use it in public, but I guess I just let it out of the bag huh?
Foods from the naughty list which are so rampant in our American diet, which are doing nothing nutritionally but stand for most of the "nutrition" in the average American kids life...that is kill your kid food.
My kids know I don't buy it, but yearn for it in a most desperate way some days.
Of course my oldest has the most trouble abstaining as he was the most exposed at a very young age. That poor baby survived off of pop-tarts and lunchables and loved it.
We know better know, but still have the craving for some of those yummy tastes.
Enter the Nutter Butter need.
I know that if I can make it at home it will be way better nutritionally and way better tasting too.

And, I get accolades, which I am into!
It helps to off-set the grumbling of the poor, poor children made to do chores and homework and such.

I did a search for copycat recipes, then went to All Recipes.com to check out some of their recipes. I read and read and read and finally got to one that I thought combined the best parts of what I wanted this cookie to be.
I converted the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies III from that site.

You know what, I am sorry to do this to you, but I am seriously out of time for today.
I am gonna make yet another batch of these cookies when I get home this afternoon, so that I can have pictures for you, then I will post the recipe.
I know I also did not write down specific measurements for the icing (mmmm, yes there is icing), so I want to do that too for all of you specific measurer type people.

Okay, so wish me luck getting all my chores and running done...
...one of which is buying peanut butter, since I had to scrape the sides of the jar this morning for sandwiches!!
Don't expect anything until after 5ish, okay??
Oh, and the two of you sweet readers who are expecting a baby within the next 2-5 days, I hope I didn't get your cravings up to bad only to let you down.
If you lived close I would hand deliver cookies to you!!!
Oh, man I gotta go.
Be back later!!

the most lame post ever

Pond life update day 3.

Sorry, I am feeling pretty shallow this week with my writing.
So, you get frogs, plants, dead bugs and fish.
It may get worse before it gets better, but I will plunge on so as to not have you checking back again only to find the previous days strange and shallow post.

Ahhhh, the flowers made quite a lot of progress!
Very interesting flower indeed.


Here are my fish.
They know I am just about to feed them so they are circling like sharks!!



Feed me, please feed me!!!



Shelby...


My clean and fed puppy!

Yeah, it is just not happening today people.
I am typing and erasing, typing and erasing, typing and erasing.
I have plenty I could write about, so that's not it.
I am trying and trying to be funny or practical or helpful in someway and keep coming up short.
So I am gonna quit trying and go finish up that last load of laundry!

okay
bye now

progress

First thing this morning
after I got up and drank my coffee, and checked my email, and got my kids up, and made lunches, and packed snacks and water, and walked my kids to the bus stop (times 2), and walked the dog (the long way today, though I really just wanted to go home), and cleaned the kitchen and dining room, and loaded the dishwasher, and started some laundry, and fed the dog (which she hasn't at this point partaken of, I suppose she is waiting for that bath I promised first) and texted with my friend in Louisiana, and ....
...oh, I suppose that is it...
I went to the pond to check on the progress out there.

I know you are patiently waiting for the report, cause you have nothing else to do, just like me!! Right?? That was sarcasm in case you missed it.

So, this is what I found.
Not a whole lot of change, but definitive white petals showing there on the bottom bud.



Our frog was still there!

I finally figured out that my camera was focusing on a leaf and couldn't "see" the frog.
Aren't his eyes just something else!! I was so captivated by that yesterday that I didn't notice the wonderful white stripe which runs from his nose, right under his eye, and across his ribs.
Fantastic!!!

Oh, I just have to tell you there was also a very large and very dead caterpillar at the bottom of the lower pond area.
I got the net and fished it out and tried to take a photo but just couldn't stomach it.
It looked all bloated and gross.
Why would I want to put that on my blog?

Now that I type all that out I feel pretty silly that I think I can't take a picture of a dead bug.
Hold on a minute I am gonna go right back out there and face this thing.






I am back!

There he was.

Laying there, (or is it lying there) in the puddle of water he came up with, still all large and dead and bloated.

I just couldn't disrespect him like that, so I kindly flicked him into the grass.
With a stick, ewwwww!!!!
I then convinced myself that he was merely a visitor to the pond and that I found him there happily crawling from the grass, and then took his picture.



Uggghhh! I suppose he must have fallen out of the tree above the pond.
Are you still with me??

Okay good, because with only an hours time passing our lowest bud opened!!
It is a 3 petal flower!
Take a look!

Interestingly large center it has there!

I will check back later and see the progress.
Oh, also...
here is the lily pad from yesterday opening up even more.


It will probably be to the surface by morning.

If things weren't so exciting out by the pond I may have gotten a recipe posted today.

How about a tip instead to tide you over.
Wrap your celery in foil, and it will stay fresh and crisp, a way long time! There is just nothing like floppy celery!

I better go give my dog her bath now so she can eat.

Look how she is pretending to sleep while sitting.
She does this when she thinks she is getting negative attention.
Then I asked her if she wanted a bath.
You know, in that high pitched voice dogs love so!


That perked her up!!

You know what, have a great day...despite anything you may read here!! ha ha ha.

Hurry come look!

POND REPORT:


I really enjoy having this pond in my back yard.
The sound of the water falling sneaks in through my bedroom windows when they are open.
It is a constantly changing little place which makes each visit to it unique.

Late Saturday I went out to enjoy some perfect afternoon air and feed my fish, and I was pleasantly surprised by another stalk of those shimmery lavender flowers which made an appearance back at the end of June and haven't been seen since.
I do not understand when or why those flowers bloom, but will take them as they come.

This morning I went back out, knowing that those flowers would be gone, but still holding out some hope that they may have lasted more than 2 days this time.
Nope!
They were pitifully withered with the whole stalk sadly drooping down into the water.
It wasn't a sight to share, you have to trust me on this.

I was so distracted by those purple flowers that I didn't take notice of something new amidst the duck potato plant.


I just can't take myself seriously saying duck potato plant!!
Ha ha ha, they are the tall stalky guys in the above photo.
Do you see the speckly brown stalk there in the center with the bloom type pods near the top?

Anyway, if it is that plant, then those buds should turn into pretty white blooms soon.

I got mightily distracted from that stalk though and quickly when I saw what else was going on at the pond today. It is in the above picture, it just isn't obvious.
Here is a different view of the speckled stalk and it shows our new little visitor.


Do you see him. The lovely green frog!
Here, let's get closer!!
His eyes are shimmering gold and shiney black.
Oh, to have a camera someday and be able to show you what I am seeing!!!
He was very kind to be nice and still for my photography session.
I just love frogs!!!

Before I go I wanted to show you this too.
I have always noticed water lilies laying flat on a waters surface, haven't you?
Well, they don't come to the surface flat. They are curled up and slowly unfurl as they approach the water level.
I hope you can make out the purple spotted curled leaf there in the center. It is rolled from both sides toward the middle. It will open up and be a nice round lily pad.


Okay, I have got to go.
I have bunches to do today, but had to quickly share those few beauties from the pond .

No time for beans!

Wednesday night I put my beans on to soak!
A soaker of beans I am.
Yup they soaked and soaked and soaked.
Little white navy beans soaking in my blue glass bowl.

I decided that I would put them on to cook when I got home from errand running around noon on Thursday.
Because of the busy state of my life right now, I choose to cook my beans in the crockpot so that I don't have to think about them.
The result is often slightly overcooked beans, but I prefer that just fine compared to the alternative.
Of course I know that I need at least a good 4 hours to get those beans done on the highest setting.
Well...

... I didn't get home at noon yesterday.
I didn't get home at one.
Not even 1:30!
I got home around 1:45.
That is pushing it so close to 2 which is the absolute cut off for bean cooking to be ready for that nights supper.
I had this though.
I felt confident that I could get them in, dust my hands off and call it good.

It was not to be though!
A blinking red message light attracted my attention, so I went there first upon my arrival at home.
It was the message I had been waiting for since April. Some paperwork was finally, yes finally complete and my presence was requested for pick up of said papers.
But...I had to be there by 2:30, and it is a 30 minute drive to get there.

So I left the little white beans soaking in the blue bowl and rushed out to get to my paperwork meeting.
I knew in my heart, at that moment, that the beans would suffer.
What could I do?
I was bound by the circumstances of the day.
Paperwork waits for no bean!!

I arrived back home just in time to meet the school bus which drops off my two youngest children, and their slave labor amounts of homework, which includes but is not limited to math checking, book reading, spelling studying, chart making and of course all the conversation about the day thrown in along with that.
A woman can be mightily distracted in the hours just before dinner while attending to three children and their days worth of living.
I did focus long enough to take the soaking beans from the blue bowl, transferring them to my large soup pot, probably right around 4pm.
How in the world those beans were supposed to be ready for our 6pm supper, I do not know. But I was determined to make it happen.
I turned up the heat nice and high and went about my business.
Sometimes my brain seizes up and I forget obvious things.
All sense of cooking know how, exits the building like a man leaving work on Friday.

See here is the deal. I have been cooking on an electric stove for 14 years now. This house however contains a gas stove which I am simply not accustomed to.
Gas cooks different from electric. Very different!

I put those beans on to cook and left them boiling away determined that they would be ready for supper. I stirred whenever I walked past, urging them with kind words to go ahead and finish up so I could feed my family.

Then I made a fatal mistake. I walked upstairs and began to search the internet for a new cookie recipe.
I do remember at 5:09 pm hollering down to my oldest son to "please stir the beans", which he did. Of course that child doesn't yet know that if you stir the beans and there are only beans there and no apparent water that the temperature should be turned down and water should be added. (He knows now!!)
Around 5:20 I found that I was reading brownie recipes. I mean, I have three awesome cookie recipes and maybe we need a little change of pace around here...I like the pace of brownies.
Suddenly, I smelled a smell.
A burning smell.
A oh man I got so excited about brownies and forgot about the cooking beans smell.
A wow, I didn't know burnt beans smelled so bad smell.
An oh no, now what are we gonna have for supper smell.

Gas cooks so much hotter and faster than electric and my mind is not there yet to keep specific track of the cooking process.
I am never cooking beans on the stove again!!!
I am gonna cook 'em in the crockpot til the day I die!!!

I decided that the mexican food place down the road needed me and my family to eat there last night.
And, I didn't make brownies!
I just couldn't do it.
I didn't trust myself not to mess it up.
My confidence was distressed by burned beans.

So I made my chocolate chip cookies instead...and am a better person for it.

By the way....I really rushed through this post to get it up before heading out the door this morning and hope that despite that you feel to a small degree the urgency and desperation of the bean burning Thursday.
Happy Friday all!!!!

Walk everyday!

I woke up feeling better today! I am pretty excited about that.
It could be the new haircut.
Okay, it probably isn't the new haircut...that helped my mental state though!
My old hairdo was in the process of growing out.
It left me feeling what I call "mom-i-fied".
As in, I have nothing else going on in my life but being a mom and don't I look like it.
I am not hip and cool, never have been...but I am for sure not mom-i-fied.

So, since I was feeling poorly I asked Shelby if she would take a picture with me for the blog.
She wasn't thrilled about it, but did want to make an appearance and be known as something other than "that dog who looks like Yoda".
So I handed the camera to my 9 year old and got a huge variety of very bad photos!
Here is the least worrisome of the lot.

It is cut into a cute little stack in the back and tapers gently to the front.

My new orangish hair color doesn't look quite as strange I think.


This morning when I logged onto Facebook, I noticed that one of my friends had checked that they liked this photo.



I put that photo online back in March.
I can remember thinking...
This is why I write a blog.

I know that may seem random and strange to you, but I just had so much I wanted to say about this photo at the time, and so many other things, but felt limited by the constraints of facebook.

Here is what I want to say today. It is really about so much more than the bee!

My God designed and made that bee.
That design is so very amazing, beyond understanding...fantastic!!
It helps to prove that God is real.
He is who He says He is!
It gives substance to His commands for us.

The writer of Romans puts it like this in chapter 1 verse 20.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse "

That same God who made that bee for me to understand his supremacy is the master and creator of all that I believe and understand.

It is becoming more and more clear to me that acknowledging His supremacy is a very very important part of my life and walk.
When we don't give Him thanks and acknowledge Him we are headed down a slippery slope of humanness and..."we profess to be wise but become fools, whose hearts become darkened".

check out verse 28 of the same chapter.
"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."
and continuing in verse 32 after a long list of improper things...
"and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

So, I guess my point here is....
God gave us plenty of evidence of his majesty.
He gave us plenty of reason to praise Him and tell of His greatness.
He asks us to be thankful and honoring of Him.
I am learning that doing this consistently and heartily draws me closer to God.
Closer to his commands and principles.
Closer to His presence.

I don't want to be put in a position of not acknowledging Him and Him being so disappointed in me that he gives me over to do improper things. I really, really even want to stay away from giving hearty (or even lackadaisical) approval to such things.

There are certainly things God calls sin, which I do not give approval to.
To do that, for me would be to deny God.
I cannot do it.
If put in a position of asking me to do that...I sincerely desire that I will learn to consistently not choose that route. If my heart is softened toward sin, doesn't it mean it is on its way to being hardened toward God.
Choosing to gloss over willful sinful behavior draws me away from God, even as sin draws the sinner away.

As I write this I understand that I am likely to be misunderstood, mainly because there is a strong sadness in my heart which I cannot share here,
and that I again see that I have so much growing yet to do in my walk with God.

But, ya know what???
Though you may not know it or see it.
I am walking.
Some days it is a slow plod, other days I feel as though my feet can't possibly catch up with my heart.
My heart which through the struggles and misunderstandings of life, longs to be completely His.
My heart which aches when trying so hard to do what is right in the sight of the Lord... but which also seems foolish to man.

Here, this verse gives me courage...
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.


Poor you!
You came and got stuck in the middle of my own mental arguments and anguish today.
No peanut butter cookies or anything.
Sorry, sometimes when a topic is on my heart I gotta get it off, or go crazy in the meantime.

Let's do this. Lets...

go for a walk.
A God walk.
Walk everyday.
Let the eyes of the Lord find you seeking to give your heart completely to Him...
as you are walking.

And, lets also eat cookies.
Lots of cookies.
I need to go make some cookies.

Sock it to me!

Ugh!
I haven't been feeling great, hence the no post thing.

Still not at the top of my game, but it is Monday!
Yes my friends, Monday is laundry day and laundry is spinning around here.
Lots and lots of laundry.
I just want to address a portion of the laundry thing here for just a moment because I want to and because I have nothing else I care to put the mental energy required to make a super fantastic post.

We have 5 people here in this house.
(Laundry seems to multiply exponentially with each added person.)
So let us just spend a moment of reflection on say....socks!
Yes, socks!!

Look, just bear with me okay. I can't write life changing inspirational things everyday. And yes, I know you are still waiting for several recipes including the peanut butter cookies, but I just don't have it in me. The magic doesn't just happen! I am tired and mush brained so we are gonna talk about socks and you are gonna like it!! So there.

I apologize if that came across as harsh.
uhhhhhh.....

socks

If 5 people wear 2 socks each day of the week...just how many socks is that to wash and match up?

Oh wow, I hate number problems.
Me and numbers...we don't get along so well.
What have I gotten myself into?
This was supposed to be a mindless silly laugh about the good life doing laundry sort of post.

But I can do this.
Even on Monday, even with half my brain tied hostage by sinus pressure.
Let's see...
5 people x 2 feet=10 socks each day.
10 socks x 7 days= 70 socks in all.
Hey lookey there I did it!
70 individual socks longing to meet up with their partners to form 35 pairs of socks.
Do I have that right?
That just doesn't seem like a large enough number for the crazy amount of socks that pass through my fingers each week.

Oh, let me also include 3 pair of long, dirty, grassy, smelly, sweaty, wrong side out soccer socks.
Ewwwww. Just turning those things right side out makes me heave a bit.
Come on soccer moms you know what I am talking about!!
That brings us to 38 pairs. That is of course the minimum and doesn't account for oh so many other instances of life.

Let me be perfectly honest with you here.
I hope you don't judge me too harshly!
Sigh.
I admit it, right here for the world to know...

I don't match up my oldest boys white socks which all look alike.
I simply put them in a nice pile with the rest of his laundry and he has to choose two to put on each day.

I do so wrestle with this decision and its impact on his life.

Actually I don't! But it sounded neat to say.

I am so very blessed to be able to gather my families laundry and serve them each week in washing! I mean that genuinely.
There is something so wonderful about beautiful piles of clean folded laundry.
Yes, it is a chore.
And, one that must be accomplished each week.
But man oh man am I glad it is my chore, in my house, with my family!
Let us find joy and contentment in our own particular life.
In our own particular world of chores and duties.
If we can do that...socks become yet another wonder to behold!!!

(Well, except maybe for those soccer socks... those are still icky!)