Carowinds Fun

Wes and the Goose have a new favorite weekend activity... Carowinds!  They have been every Saturday morning for the last 4 weeks, at least!  I went along the first time to witness the fun, but since I can't ride anything and have been busy for the last 3 Saturdays, the two musketeers have gone on their own... And they have had a blast!  Take a look...

 

Back to my ordinary life

Wow, after a 4 month hiatus, I have finally emerged from the land of paper-writing and speed-reading (which is really not at all speedy) and returned to my ordinary life. Don’t get me wrong, I love seminary and learn so much in my classes, but I do believe I love boring days of ordinary house-wifedom/stay-at-home-momness better. There is just something strangely gratifying about cleaning out closets, organizing everything under-the-sun, getting rid of things you can’t begin to remember why you kept in the first place, cleaning the shower!!!, and yes, even making the bed (a task which is normally reserved for those rare occasions when we have company).

 

Let me be clear, I live under no disillusions that I am a good house-wife or stay-at-home-mom (to which I am sure Wes can attest), but I have learned to truly love the ordinary stuff. I used to feel discouraged by the success of other women, especially those who seem to accomplish so much with houses full of children. Somehow I was certain that I was simply a failure… at everything... at motherhood, wifedom, business endeavors, blogging, friendship, etc. I didn’t feel I excelled at anything, and by trying to do so much, I failed, at least to some degree, at everything. To a certain extent, that is still true, but I have finally learned a few things…

 

• I can’t do everything… I cannot be Pioneer Woman… and though I love/envy her talent, I generally leave her blog feeling guilty and inadequate for all I fail to get done… I cannot do it all, or even half…
• I can’t be a business woman… while I admire those women who manage to raise children, start/run a small business, all the while appearing successful and happy… I am not one of those women. I love my “little-clothing-business-that-could” but it has become the “tiny-clothing-business-that-is-more-like-a-semi-annual-hobby”… 
• I can’t take three classes in one semester… I am remedial… It will take me many years to finish my masters... but I will chip away at it SLOWLY and hope that by the time my children graduate, I will too…

 

Perhaps this seems to be quite a negative view of myself, but I think I just work backwards… I had to realize what I couldn’t do first and then figure out what I can do, should do, love doing, and am called to do… I have finally learned a few things…

 

•  It’s ok to just do a few things… a very few things, and maybe if I just focus on a few, I can do those things quasi-well instead of just barely good-enough.
• It’s ok to take a long time to finish school… making the decision to start was the hard part… I took that step, and I will keep stepping, slowly, sometimes backwards but mostly forwards, and eventually, I will finish… I hope! Perhaps I will even retain more by going slowly, instead of just rushing through and checking things off the degree-requirement-list.
• My first and most important job is to be a mother and a wife… and when I give myself time to actually BE that… I L-O-V-E that job, more than any other. In truth, it is more than a job… it is my calling… right now, I am called to nurture my family… this is the task God has given me, and I am not just labeling it as a “calling” to make myself feel better… I somehow understand more clearly now just how important, huge, and difficult the task is of raising children… not just meeting their physical needs, but teaching and showing them how to be good, loving, Christian people. Even if I fail at everything else, I pray I don’t fail at this.
• I am a child of God… I cannot fail at that, no matter how hard I try… or more aptly how little I try to be a good child… I am still His, even when I fail… and fail… and fail… even when my priorities are all wrong… even when I feel like a failure at everything else, this I still am and will always be… I hope to be a better child… in fact, I plan on that… but I am sure I will still fail, at least occasionally…. And that’s OK.

 

Perhaps a better title for this post and my life would be “And that’s OK”… because it is… Ordinary is OK… actually its better than OK… it’s fantastic. And I am called to live my ordinary life the best way I can. You see, I realize now that God calls some people to extraordinary lives… some are meant to be “successful” and amazing in the world’s eyes… and some are meant to be great at being ordinary… going largely unnoticed by the world, but not without affecting their own small piece of it… I am one of the latter… and that’s OK.

 

Potty Power!

This is not a flashback (more of those to come later)... I just couldn't resist sharing today's hilarity/mayhem. 

Circa 1am our power went out due to the rediculous wind accompanying the equally rediculously strong thunder/lightening storm.  Circa 6am the goose wakes up and heads straight for the potty... two seconds later the tears start when the light won't come on... and because she has to let daddy help her... and because we won't let her flush.  You see, we have well, and no power equals no pump, hence no water to flow in to flush said potty.  This, to an almost-four-year-old is VERY troubling... AND prompts EVEN MORE questions than the standard 100/hour.  We did our best to explain why the lights won't work and why we can't flush the potty, then proceeded to bribe her into ceasing with the 50 questions game by letting her carry around the battery-operated Snow White night light, which is clearly better than a flashlight any day.  Well, Wes had to take the dog out, and I couldn't take the questions on the very few hours of poor sleep I had, so, being the stellar mother that I am, I sent her out with him, the dog, and, of course, the Snow White light... (Enter 4 minutes of peace... ahh!) Upon her arrival back in the house, the goose, who is now no longer scared of our lack of power, proudly informs me...

"Mommy, there are a lots of leaves and sticks in the yard... I think that's why we don't have any potty power."

Yes, Goose, I think that's it.  And the moral of this story... never underestimate the importance of potty power!

Almost Alice Springs Chicken

Contrary to popular belief, I do still possess some domestic skills... I am just a bit more hesitant to exercise these skills than I used to be.  ANYWAY, I got the crazy idea (based on a craving I think) to try and find a recipe for something close to Outback's Alice Springs Chicken.  OH MY GOODNESS... I found (and slightly altered) this recipe... It's not exactly like The Alice, but it's pretty close AND surprisingly easy (I can make it start to finish in less than 30 minutes... now that's saying something!)  There is one drawback... it's not even close to healthy (I must admit I am typing this while watching the Biggest Loser, which is some kind of irony) But who cares!  It is G-O-O-D!  Give it a try... you'll be glad you did.

Not the prettiest, but umm umm tasty! 

Almost Alice Springs Chicken...

Honey Mustard marinade/dipping sauce

Whisk together the following ingredients

• 1 cup Mayonnaise

• 4 tablespoons Sugar

• 4 tablespoons Cider Vinegar

• 6 tablespoons Honey

• 2 tablespoons French Mustard (don’t use the spicy kind… at least I didn’t think it tastes as good)

• 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce


Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless Chicken Breast halves

• 1 tablespoon Olive or Veg. Oil

• 2 cups sliced Mushrooms

• 2 tablespoons Butter

• Salt & Pepper to taste

• 8 slices Bacon – cooked

• Shredded Cheeses of your choice (original recipe calls for a cheddar-jack blend, but I once added a slice of swiss to the top of shredded cheddar and it was even better)


Directions:

1. Whisk together honey mustard ingredients

2. Put chicken in baking dish or Ziploc bag to marinate, then pour half of the honey mustard marinade over the chicken… cover or seal bag & let marinate for at least two hours or as long as overnight. (Save remaining honey mustard in a sealed container in 'fridge.)

3. Preheat oven to 375 F

4. Heat up the oil in a frying pan (or large dutch oven… I prefer using a deeper pan to keep down on spattering) on the stove and sear each chicken breast 4 minutes per side until golden brown.

5. Transfer chicken to baking dish and brush with honey mustard (or just pour a little more honey mustard over each piece of chicken

6. Salt and pepper the breasts. (OPTIONAL)

7. Add butter to frying pan and saute mushrooms.

8. Stack bacon across each breast, spoon mushrooms on each breast and then top each piece with cheese

9. Cover pan with foil or lid and bake 10 minutes. serve with remaining honey mustard for dipping (OPTIONAL).

First Trip to the Zoo...

So... I am a month behind... what's new!  Instead of one rediculously long flashback, just pretend that the next few posts were spread out over the course of several weeks.  And if you are feeling particularly imaginative, pretend it's still April.

We started off the month of April with a fun-filled trip to the zoo!  We met some of our dear-old-college-friends and their adorable girls for an afternoon-o-zoo-fun, which clearly involved a trip to Chick-fil-a too... what toddler outing would be complete without that?!? 

The girls had a great time together and were fast friends, just like their moms :)  They enjoyed many-a-game of monkey-see-monkey-do, which is appropriate considering we were at the zoo... only the game involved no monkeys... just a goose who did her best to teach L some new tricks.  Though the monkeys were #1 on the goose's "to see" list, they weren't very exciting... nothing at all like Curious George, so the elephants and giraffes took the top spot as her favorite animals.  Despite their pretty color, the flamingos came in as her least favorite... they STINK!   Here are some highlights of our day with our sweet friends...