My darling daughter has some sort of stomach virus. She was sick Saturday morning in the car which necessitated removing the car seat from the car for spot cleaning and then again Monday morning in her bed. Additionally, she's had a couple of diaper disasters requiring baths and clothes washing. So not fun.
Last night, Moo joined the fun of losing his dinner repeatedly and with such gusto that I grew concerned. He says he feels better today so that's good.
I now have this nastiness. I am not a person who deals well with nausea. I want to avoid the whole thing and will lay in a cool, dark room until the feeling passes if I can.
Have you ever heard that saying "Follow your passion"?
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I became a demonstrator a few months ago for a rubber stamp company. But it just hasn't been fun. Oh getting the stuff is fun and learning a lot of new stuff is fun, but I'm just not having fun selling the stuff. I'm not enjoying it at all.
I'm always self conscious about doing stuff for the biz but I'm out of ideas there so I end up doing nothing. I've been thinking of just quitting and doing something else. What, I have no idea.
Things I'm passionate about:
My daughter
My husband
My home
My faith
Friends
Being creative
All things Disney
Taking a vacation
Finding new ways to eat healthy
So I am passionate about things, it's just how to turn those passions into something that will make a little cash?
When I was about 11 years old, my mother and grandmother decided it was time for me to learn to sew. I was taught to hem and baste and was put in front of a sewing machine to start learning the basics. My grandmother put me to work making dish clothes and pillow cases out of inexpensive muslin and terry cloth. I ultimately made a blouse and skirt. And that was the end of my instruction.
I wanted to know more but was told that if I could master dish clothes and pillowcases, then I could sew anything. What I did not know was that these lessons were the extent of my grandmother's and mother's knowledge.
My daughter has been graced with my father's figure: long waisted, thin and tall. At her 18 month appointment, she was 35 inches tall - the 99th percentile for her age. She was also just under 25 pounds, putting her in the 55th percentile. So she's fairly thin but beautifully proportioned.
This is great but not fun to buy pants for. If I buy for her weight, the pants are too short. If I buy for length, they are too big in the waist.
So when I found a really cute pair of pajamas that only came in a 2T, I did what I never thought I'd do: I bought them and hemmed them up and took in the waist a little - by hand!
This is an awesome dish!! The flavor is delicious and it is SO easy.
Ingredients
2 cups bbq sauce (I used honey bbq sauce - whatever is on sale is fine)
1 10oz can of cranberry sauce
Chicken breasts (3-4 fits perfectly in my crock pot)
I also added 4 Sweet Potatoes - more about them in the notes below.
Spray your slow cooker with non-stick spray
Mix the bbq sauce and the cranberry sauce in the slow cooker
Moo has a tendency to gag with chicken so I tenderize it by putting the pieces in zip top bags, sealing them and BEATING THE FIRE out of them with a mallet. I get a lot of frustration out like this.
After tenderizing, put the chicken (take it out of the zip lock bags) in the sauce. Use tongs or a spoon to make sure the chicken is covered in the sauce.
Cook on low 8-9 hours or high 4-5 hours
I also added sweet potatoes to this meal. Poke the sweet potatoes with a knife or fork, wrap in aluminum foil and just place on top of the chicken.
The verdict: Moo and I REALLY like this meal. This is the first time I added the sweet potatoes and they WERE AWESOME!!! The potatoes came out tender but not overcooked.
1. Moo and I celebrate 10 years of marriage this year. I plan to tell y'all the whole story closer to the anniversary in April for keep watching for that.
2. I celebrate my 40th birthday this year. I am both excited and anxious about this.
I started 2010 with a few goals in mind, including eating better (read: REAL FOOD) and maybe losing a few pounds. I'm succeeding with the few pounds thing. And Moo and I have found we really like REAL FOOD.
I have resolved that this year I won't make any crazy resolution about losing a certain amount of weight or completely reorganizing my life or running a marathon. Instead, I am resolving to simplify my life and one way I plan to do that is by only eating real food. So this year I will read more food labels and watch out for partially hydrogentated fat and high fructose corn syrup. I learned a long time ago that margarine wasn't real food so I'll continue to stay away from that and from anything that doesn't list real food in the first 3-5 items on the label. I'll let y'all know how it goes. What is your new year's resolution?
My first memories of Doctor Who are of watching it with my dad.
I was a band geek - I know, SHOCKING!! - and I remember coming home from either a football game or a band competition about 10:30 or so and my dad was sitting there watching Doctor Who, eating tacos from Taco Bell.
My dad never just ordered 1 or 2 tacos - he always ordered a dozen or so. Mainly cuz mom and I would sometimes eat 1 or 2 and he also liked them for breakfast.
So I walked in, sat down for a taco and watched the strangest thing I've ever seen in my whole life. Doctor Who in those days was a pretty low budget affair but with amazing writing. I remember watching it, occasionally saying: "what the hell is this?"
I would bitch the whole time we were watching it. Remember I grew up in a post Star Wars world. Where were the special effects? Why were they running down dark halls all they time? And the costumes! Don't even get me started about the silly costumes!
My memory of Doctor Who is of the Tom Baker days - you know, the goofy looking guy with the stupid scarf and dopey wig. I remember seeing kids at school wearing a stupid hat and goofy scarf, but I didn't hang out with them cause I was trying to be cool.
That was my opinion of the series when it started back up in 2005 and I sat down with my husband to watch it. He is an avid Doctor Who fan and was a big fan of the old series. He watched it with his family and friends and appreciated it for it's brilliant writing and somehow overlooked the cheap effects and cardboard scenery.
I watched that first episode with him, purely to pacify him. I had no intention of getting caught up in it or even in enjoying it. But that first episode with Christopher Eccleston, who I had first seen in Elizabeth, was fun and more importantly, well done. And like that, I was hooked.
Since then, Moo and I have watched every episode, we have many favorites, and debate the show with each other and our friends. We have attended and held Doctor Who watch-a-thons (where a whole season is played from beginning to end in one day with friends and snacks). So we're hooked!
Tonight is the finale of the current Doctor, David Tennant - whom we have really enjoyed in the role. But as a enjoy tonight's show, I'll be just as likely to be thinking of my dad and the tacos.
I think he would have liked the show a lot. And it makes it feel like he still here sometimes.
This is the third Christmas that I have thought more about Mary than about Jesus at this time of year.
In particular, Luke 1:38
"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."
I think about her strength of mind; of her faith in God. I think about how she was challenging everything in her life: her parents, her betrothed, her religion; her culture - in accepting this Holy burden.
How afraid she must have been? What would everyone think? What would they think of her? Would they think she was crazy?
Even after the birth of her miraculous child, she didn't freak out when shepherds - complete strangers - come to see her newborn. Instead she:
... Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
What does this say about her?
Now that I am a mother, I look at the Nativity story differently. Instead of the great miracle of our Lord's birth, I see the strength and faith of a young woman. I see how her obedience to God has prospered us all. I see how her courage has saved us all.
Today, on Christmas day, my wish for you is to find your own strength and courage to be obedient to God.
All content on this blog, except where noted or linked, is the work of Amanda Saye. Stealing my content probably won't put you in jail but it will give me the right to call you a big poopy head and then bad mouth you all over the internet. So THERE!
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