{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
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Sigh or Freak Out.....

I am not a perfect mother...there I have said it...it is out...sorry to blow your minds....

My baby really doesn't really look like a gnome in real life.

Whatever, all that know me.....are laughing....as I just posted this morning that I forgot my #5's kindergarten spotlight.....I don't know how...it was boldly typed out on his calendar that has a prominent place on our fridge.....and I even thought about it last week....and yet I did forget....and not only did I forget....I am late...very late...it was due yesterday morning.

So late last night while my hubs finished the dishes (which he should, I fixed him chicken fried steak...in coconut oil mind you), I ran to the store to get the necessary spotlighting paraphernalia and then proceeded to go through 20 years of pictures to find the last and only six yeas of his life.....and can I just tell you all I miss my little babies, yes I know I still have babies, but when I look at those sweet chubby angelic faces and stubby little legs...my heart just melts....because I remember when.....

and then we cut to this morning as the other sweet chubby angelic baby boy turned to towering over me man child stormed out of the house....because....because....I sighed over something that his teenage mind has once.again.put.off.and.is.now.late.and.will.be.forgotten.and.lost.and.then.I.will.have.to.nag.to.get.it.done.again. and.he.will.say.I.am.freaking.out.AGAIN!

...and he forgot his freshly made lovingly prepared egg sandwich.....in a huff....

Now let's just say I didn't freak out this morning...but...

yes...but...I have before....and sadly, I probably will again....because you see....

I had to learn to be a good parent, a good mother...and sometimes I forget that....a lot

It was easy to be a blissfully happy and good mother to a teeny tiny little bundle of heaven; snuggle them, rock them, kiss them, adore them, sing to them....no problemo.....

They didn't talk back. If they were crying I knew how to soothe them, pat them, burp them, change them, feed them and love them till they were cooing again. Admittedly, I have had wonderfully colic free, easy going stress free babies...till mctwinner #1, she changed things up....but still...I didn't view her as hard...just more needy demanding, and #8 has been by far the sweetest most easygoing baby along with #3, #4 and #5...and #7.  I just have really good babies.

And then they turn, oh about, three, eleven, fourteen, or seventeen,  sometimes two, in the case of one of the twins.....and then the learning curve begins all over again...and again...and again....over and over.

You would think that I would get it the second time around, or at least the third, however, each of my children are so different that I have had to learn something new. How to let one fly, how to make one of them more secure, how to push another to be a little more, to refrain, to push and prod, cajole and sometimes bribe into making good choices that will affect them further down the line.....and I still have a long line to go down.

Or just to bite my tongue...that would probably solve a lot of problems.....

But I don't, sometimes I freak out (except this morning...no freak out) and forget that I am the parent that is in control and knows what I am doing and that I understand my children sometimes will make choices that I do not agree with and that they will have to live with the consequences. Except, that I think that I will have to deal with a mess one way or another, so I will just make them mad now and then not deal with the messy consequences later ad they will thank me later for it.

Life and agency doesn't work that way, #1 reminds me of that all the time, like on a daily and sometimes hourly basis...he is much too much like me. (There I have admitted it!) Just like the Lord gives me freedom to choose my own path, I have to give my children {a little} room to make their own choices, and to learn and grow.

BUT IT IS HARD!  I MEAN HARD! to let them make stupid choices that down the line will make no sense to them...but I must, I must.

And here is where I am constantly reminding myself that it is okay to still be learning as a parent, and if you think that you know it all....well then....good luck my friend.

It's okay to make mistakes as a parent, as long as we are just as quick to tell our kiddos we are sorry.

I tell my kids that I wake up praying for them in the morning and repenting for myself at night...and that they forget that their mother is still learning and that she isn't perfect.....

but that she loves them more then anything else in the world, that she would walk on hot coals and lay her life down if necessary for them....because that is what imperfect and freak out mothers.....parents do.

I wish for them that when they become parents the learning curve won't be as steep as I the one I climbed...because...I showed them the way and kept the path lit and that I am not quite the freak out they thought I was.

But until then, I will just have to remind myself that as long as I do a little better each day, that that day was  a success. Much like learning to eat Traditional Foods or deal with cloth diapers, or return to the farm....a little can go a long way.

And hopefully the little things like Butter Sauce for Gingerbread waffles or German pancakes or like Raspberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast...will erase my freak outs ...or that I make them eat oatmeal.
Butter Sauce is so easy but something that they will remember you took the time to make. Minutes to make and no preservatives or HFCS in it!

So love and hug and rock...even the 17 year old....little buggers while you can....they will remember...

Butter Sauce

1 cube butter
1/2 cup canned coconut milk (the thick stuff on top, not the water part)
1 Cup raw cane sugar

Combine in heavy pan and bring to a rapid boil, stirring occasionally. Serve warm.

Good not for me

I am making belgian waffles for dinner.....(mcdaddy might not be impressed...maybe that is why he isn't home yet)

and...I had lunch meat (honey turkey..if you really want to know) for breakfast.

I can do that....I am the mom, or at least I keep telling myself that.

I need an intervention, I needa, needa almost demand a  hypnotist....

I needa, almost demand an aversion to bread...and pasta....and sweets....and ice cold cokes....

but I can't know it......or I will fight it....

but heaven knows my mommy muffin, thunder thighs and bubble butt need an intervention.

But maybe tomorrow...I have to scarf a waffle with homemade buttermilk syrup made with real butter.....that was churned by the 8th graders on pioneer day.)  It is good not for me...well maybe the amount that I will probably consume, I will probably pass up the antelope sausage though....see I can say no to some things...

I will only eat one, I will only eat one, I will only eat one, I will only....

Maybe I can even exercise too......and get a  tan.....while I work on gettin the farm...

I did however buy a planet saving BPA aluminum water bottle....and remembered to bring the camera to #5's preschool graduation and picnic.   There, I feel better about myself. 


lovingly,

too fat for her fat pants but saved the planet....that's a potato...not me..though I could probably be one...all the starch flowing thru my veins

Easy Homemade Greek Yogurt

Soooooo...I should be mopping the floor while the babes are napping and JD is absorbed in cartoons (aren't I a terrific mom....o...whatever...he is sick...a sick kid totally has free reign of the cartoons!)

but, instead, I am going to post the homemade greek yogurt recipe and ways that I use it.....while your kiddos are sleeping and you are blog surfing.

See we are both productive...sorta...

.

I decided I needed to make my own yogurt after we knew that one of my twins (see the little squeak above) needed a daily dose of yogurt to keep the thrush away and keep her tummy active (if ya know what I mean!).  But have you read what is in store bought yogurt?  ...and the kids versions are just as bad if not worse! Aiyyiyi.what would our grandmothers think?  well mine didnt like yogurt...so they would have thought no way am I trying it.....

My thoughts were...I need a cow....

but instead I turned to the internet...

I don't know what I would do without the internet.....oh yeah...I would have gone to the library...

but I found many a helpful ideas out there! For you newbies out there......mom...grandma....click on the hi lighted words greek yogurt...it will take you to the link!)

Here are my side notes to this demonstration...first, I used 1% milk, which worked, but I imagine that whole milk wold be ooo so much creamier...but the reason  made it with 1% milk is because I wanted a lower fat yogurt.....not that milk fat is bad for you....

milk fat, or rather cream makes the world go round and makes it so much easier to take a bite out of life...

let's count the ways.....

sour cream....can't live without it
butter...won't live without it
cheese...have to have it
cream cheese...just love it!
buttermilk....must cook with it
cottage cheese....shouldn't live without it

should I go on......ok...you get the point!

I also didn't add in the honey, I like my yogurt a little tart...that is how I like all my honey's..ok my one honey, but if you want to make different flavors here is another helpful website .

So (I just realized why Carrisa uses that dang word so much!) one of my favorite ways to incorporate this yummy greek yogurt is really Mack daddy's...he brought the recipe home from Iraq with him.....

and that is homemade crusty bread.....of which I will give you the secret recipe once I get permission from the source.....

For lack of a better title....I'll just call it Mack daddy's dip

Mack daddy's a dip? No I would never say that...

ok you can call it Greek Yogurt Dip if you must

- Place yogurt on a plate (with a deeper rim) and spread it out, do it s thick as you like.
- Sprinkle ground cumin all over the yogurt...the more the better...cumin is my favorite spice...next to posh!
- Gently drizzle olive oil (if I was cool like Racheal Ray I would call it OVOO, but I'm not, so  won't pretend!)
- Dip in nice crusty bread, or cucumbers, red peppers and carrots or whatever sounds good at the moment...if I get desperate, I am not above dipping ritz cackers...and sometimes it is a double dip.  sssshhhhhh...more for me!


I also love this yogurt with homemade granola (no store bought granola......it is so BAD for you!), making pound cake (except the one I made last night...went online to find a more lemony one...ugh..it was terrible! So if any of you have a wonderful tarty lemon pound cake recipe...please send it my way!)

I also love it on baked potatoes and anything you would top with sour cream....Mack isn't a fan...but it has a wonderful creamy texture and better for you if you think you need to be watching your fat intake (which far too many of us do! read here)

I am also going to try out making cream cheese.......so wish me luck and a cow long with it!

Hope you like!!