{Minute Monday} Good, Better Best

Question: What happens when you may not be spending your time in the most appropriate manner and that you could possibly be more productive doing something else...but you don't want to admit it?

Answer: Your DSL line goes down and you are without the internet (blog) for five days and your eyes are too old to try and type it out on the old iphone.

{gasp}

But it was good, because I already knew I was not prioritizing the important things in life..and that was making life crazy as things were not getting done and that makes me uptight...even when it is my own fault  and the the kids get grumpy and then then the mister doesn't want to come home....(not really....he just works long hours and then has city government stuff and church stuff and then just stuff)...and then that makes me even more crazy cuz the load is getting a little tiring after a long day.....

So after a break from the computer (read...hedging up....I've learned that is what the good Lord does when I won't stop and listen...you would think I had learned by now......but that is another conversation.)

I am ready to put my best foot forward and remember Good, Better, Best.....

that my devotion to God comes first through studying the scriptures and pondering....

that my family and home then come and where a good majority of my time is and should be spent, followed by church obligations (and really they aren't obligations...I love doing them...or rather I am learning to love cub scouts!

Service and being of help is next......and then....

and then my blog, which often waits as I get lost in all of your blogs.  There are so many out there! They are so fantastic...I don't know why I blog!!  I am inspired every time I read one of your fabulous blogs!!!  Or I laugh out loud...for reals...as my teens would say. You all make me want to be a better mom, a better friend, a better homemaker ad a better person!

SO I need to remember that and not freak out over posting....do you do that or is it just me?  Oh good.....I am not alone...I hope....that wasn't just the voice i my head right??

So or Minute Monday...here are the things I learned

1. Plenty of friends and neighbors will think you are crazy overboard with your Real Food obsessions....and they are probably right....80/20 has to work for right now to save your sanity.  80% eating right and the other 20% you will just try and make good choices and forgive yourself when it isn't a good choice.
2. Cheap pizza from a local chain when wreak havoc on your system and leave you with a migraine because you tried to let loose and live the 20% rule....it reminds you that going hungry would have been better. But I really didn't have too...there was plenty of food in the house and that u didn't need to eat the crappy pizza your daughter requested for her and her friends....because the pain will still be lingering on Monday.  Ouch....
3. 13/14 girls make me laugh as they sing with gusto to the radio, go gaga over boys and giggly squeal at the slightest hint o something funny.
4. Teething sucks. nuf said.
5. Kids will learn to appreciate home made ketchup...and even like it. I wonder if the hubs liked the home made mayo on his sandwich today..I didn't bother telling him....
6. I love cloth diapers...really I do...especially gdiapers......even when she poops....you just have to remember this...

         and then order the little sprayer that hooks to your toilet.......can't wait!!!

          7.  That SweetLeaf Stevia is the real deal!  I started switching the family to Stevia after studying and reading about sugar substitutes. Don't be fooled, but the other marketed stevias....they are made mostly with alcohol/ethanol derivatives. My kids LOVED it on their homemade yogurt!!

         8. The more I learn...the more I don't know!!  But I know more then I did last week.

         9. That we are all human, that we love and loose, hope and wish and learn and grow  pretty much the same way.  As we welcomed two gentlemen from Pakistan and Afghanistan into our home for dinner and a cultural exchange, I always walk away with a replenished hope for the good in the world that exists and that eventually peace will reign as we talk and exchange ideas. (Especially that we Americans don't all live in humungous mansions like on MTV..I'll share more about these diners later..just don't let me forget)

        10. That I can be in more in LOVE with my best friend after nineteen years of marriage then I ever imagined when we first laid eyes on each other....or at least...I laid eyes on his...um...er....wrangler bum. (and it still looks good!)

And the long awaited recipe for

OPULENT CHICKEN

• chicken tenders
• ½ cup sour cream
• 8 -10 ounces swiss cheese , sliced thin
• ½ cup melted butter
• 3 (10 ½ ounce) cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 cups Ritz cracker crumbs
  Clean and skin breast and place in bottom of 9X13 dish, cover completely with sliced/grated  cheese. Mix together soup, sour cream and lemon juice and pour over top of chicken covering completely.Mix cracker crumbs with butter and sprinkle over the top of sauce. Bake at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. Now this is the original recipe...and it is GOOD...but it has canned soup in it.....what to do what to do...since I don't even have caned soup in the house.  I just up the sour cream (mine was homemade, but all natural from the store will work just fine) to four cups, mix with homemade chicken stock, salt, white pepper and onion powder to taste. 
  AND PLEASE  don't mess up the cooking time like I do (twice now...it hasn't been pretty!)....you cannot be on a rush to do this...you just can't...slow cooking at a low temperature will make this your favorite dish! But if you do mess it up like I have...twice now...maybe even three times, I just don't want to admit it....I just remove the chicken from the pan and pour the juices into the "white sauce" that I have made, stir and gently lay back over your naked chicken. 
  Side note: [Dear friend that I got this recipe from...please forgive me with messing with it....it is a wonderful recipe....you know how I am though...slightly psychotic about  what is in processed food. Maybe one day they will make a soup I can feel good about, till then I just won't tell you how I desecrate your recipe.I love you always!]
  When I have cooked the chicken at too high a temperature.....the sour cream has cooked down to a liquid...still okay to eat...(unless your husband sees it and proceeds to ask/tell you what is wrong with the chicken....depending on which side of the conversation you are on...anyways....) but none of the creamy heavenliness that your want to pour over your rice...hence the white sauce.....and let me tell you white sauce is our friend......It saves me many a time.
  
  
  You can find the basics of White Sauce here.
  
  
  Most of all...don't be afraid to learn and try new things...and if you mess up.....fix it...and don't tell anyone...or throw it away and don't tell anyone. Either way you tried something new......and that's what counts!
  
  
  Love yer guts