Parent job description :-)

There is an autistic young man at kiddo's school. He is somewhat engaged with the world and from what little I have seen him he seems like a likeable young man. Whenever he sees me in the hall, he pretty much always says "who's mom you are?" Yes, that's the syntax, yep, as accurately as I can record it. I always say "I'm kiddo's friend, not his mom" or "I'm the mom to three cats, and the friend of kiddo." The autistic guy has no reason to know better; he's never seen kiddo's mom at school and probably will never see her. After all, she doesn't even know how to get to kiddo's school without my getting her directions...arrgh.

But I AM a parent, and so is hubs. We have poured thousands upon thousands of hours into kiddo, and at least six figures worth of money to educate and care for this precious cargo God put on our doorstep eight years ago.

So I think we qualify for this job description. If you are a parent, or just play one on TV like we do, you should read this. God appreciates what you do, even if you feel kind of ignored or unappreciated at times. Remember that, okay? :-)

Not self hypnosis

Just a challenge to me and to everyone. I have been suggesting to kiddo that they think of three good things that happened to them today (or any day). Kiddo has a helluva lot of pain from their life, but things to be joyful about as well. This isn't an attempt for any of us to ignore the very real problems and seemingly insurmountable obstacles put before us at present, but to recognize and acknowledge the good things that are happening too.

Three good things:

1. hubs fixed the garage door, and very promptly
2. after kiddo works out hard, the brain chemicals are such that they are very nice to talk with for about twenty or thirty minutes...I cherish that time. (then right back into the abyss, but I know it and recognize the pattern, at least)
3. cheese bread with garlic is really yummmy on homemade wheat bread in the new toaster oven!

I dare ya...think of three good things about today. Bet you can! :-)

A variation on the meatball recipe

In the paper today, I saw a variation on the meatball/grape jelly/chili sauce recipe.

They used cranberry sauce. I would guess you might want to use the jelled kind rather than the whole berry, unless you want chunks of cranberries floating around in the sauce.

They also added a dash of cumin to it.

Sounds pretty good to me...we'll have to try it for the next potluck. And on a totally unrelated note, pad thai is calling...it's been a long while since I've made any. Perhaps I'll go searching for new pad thai recipes, but the New York Times one has served me well for a long time. Just so darned easy.

Life's hard...

...God still loves me. Doesn't feel good at all right now to say the least, but I still have faith. Sometimes I don't know why I do. I just do. There is still much to be thankful for.

Also an important post, but not mine...

This kind of goes with this. Helpful and important advice. If you read the first one, this one goes hand in glove. Written by her hubby.

Very Easy Broccoli Soup

This is a version of soup I saw on the "Living Like Daniel" Yahoo group. I rarely if ever stop by there, but this recipe was quite useful. Of course I changed it...*L*

Heat up a couple cups of broth, a can would probably work just fine, or half of one of those quart asceptic containers.

Then cook around sixish cups of broccoli in the broth. I think florets are best, but you could just use chopped broccoli too, I imagine. To me, this is a perfect use of maybe a pound or so bag of frozen broccoli florets.

Puree a can of white beans...cannelli, great northern, whatever. In this case I did not drain and rinse the beans, so you might want to use low salt beans, or not add additional salt depending on what your sodium needs are.

Once the broccoli is cooked, dump in the white bean puree, and use some salt (if needed) and white pepper. I guess you could use black pepper as well, but I like white pepper for cream soups.

Then puree the whole thing. I just use a stick blender for this right in the pot.

Add a cup of cheddar cheese. I wouldn't use the nonfat cheese, but you could use 2% cheese if you wanted. Probably sharp cheddar would have the best effect, but I used what I had instead.

Nice and very easy.

Christmas food...

We're dining with friends...and bringing

Grape jelly/chili sauce meatballs

Pecan cobbler

Cranberry Cake

Orzo Salad

Banana Nut Bread

that chocolate pecan candy (under "classy looking gift" if I remember correctly)

and a Goat Cheese Gratin with Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, and cohja (sp?) cheese. yep, that was the challenging one that we hadn't done before, from the current Rachael Ray magazine. I'm not a huge RR fan, but the recipe sounded cool...and I liked the magazine, I'll admit it...

all these recipes are on this site if you are looking for them...if you can't find them lemme know and I"ll look for them with you! :-)

What kind of Christmas tree are you?

You Are a Minimal Christmas Tree

You're not a total Scrooge, but you feel no need to go overboard at Christmas. Less is more, and your Christmas reflects refined quality.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

This is a very important post

Read by thousands. Hey, she has a potty mouth sometimes, but this could save someone's life that you know. Read this. Please.

depleted

Warning; this post might be a good one to skip over.

The last few years have really taken it out of me. My reserves are low and my anger is often high. Feel pretty non-understood, not that this is a word. I know God understands, but a human face on that would help. I'm not saying this to get a comment out of anyone...I'm saying it more to be real and to acknowledge my feelings as being at least somewhat legitimate.

Several weeks ago when talking to a long time friend I mentioned something in an aside about the number of miles hubs and I drive every day to take care of kiddo (100 minimum) and somehow the amount of money we spend to pay tuition, gas, etc., came up. It was what is for us a huge, overwhelming number that leaves us gasping for financial breath every month, and frankly sinking beneath the waves quite a few of them. They were really surprised about both the mileage and the number. Somehow that felt really hard...like not even our close friends understand what we are going through.

People talk about vacations, buying cars, etc., and frankly I feel so left out. I am tired of a seventeen year old TV and a refrigerator that isn't working that great. I am tired of a roof that needs replacing pronto.

But Lord, you must have some kind of plan for me, and some kind of peace for me. Help me keep discovering it.

And my apologies to anyone who actually reads this post. Consider it only an honest cry of sadness (like what, Psalm 88 I think it is?) and hopes for the Psalm 89 after it.

I know we are making a difference, but it is still excruciatingly hard and so very lonely many, many times.

Please don't take this post the wrong way. I'm grateful to God anyhow. Take it more as maybe a weak example of how anyone can be honest with God even when things suck and still be loved and accepted. Sure am glad about that last part. Or maybe it's an honest statement that might help someone else at the holidays, the time where stereotypically all is supposed to be wonderful and you might not feel quite that wonderful today.

If you're where I'm at, maybe this will help.

And if you read this, don't stop there, I can tell you from experience. Read this, too. Pardon the french, but you can't tell me that the psalmists didn't have a helluva lot of problems, too. I am comforted by that realization.

Major yummy...and majorly rich

I had a special request from kiddo to make Pecan Cobbler. This is a very rich recipe. I have seen a bunch of different recipes like this on the 'net, but I would use this one because the oat flour makes a big difference. I did the oat flour in the food processor because I have been told that doing it in the blender can scratch up the inside of the blender if it is plastic (oatmeal being all exfoliating and such). ;-)

Personally, I would probably bake it a bit longer than the hour timeframe, but watch it carefully, of course. I baked it an hour and it was a wee bit runny. However, it flew out of the pan at the church potluck, and kiddo gave it a seal of approval. Of course, kiddo would rather I left the crust out entirely. But then it wouldn't be cobbler, would it? :-)

Kiddo wanted me to get vanilla bean ice cream to go with it, but hey, that doesn't really work with a potluck. So whipped cream it was. I'll bet cinnamon ice cream would be good as well.

Not what I expected

Today was the first time I sang before a mic in my life. And I lived through it. Actually, I wasn't scared. That was surprising in and of itself. Next time I'll ask for a different monitor mix, but hey, in music city, I'm more than a little self conscious.

God was gracious, because I didn't know I could do that. Years ago, performing on my instrument before hundreds or (once in a while) more than that was fine with me, but singing was not something I wanted to do in a small group. But it was okay. I think worship was not as scary up front as I thought it would be. Yay God.