World's worst Cook

I have a confession to make. I cannot cook. My inability to cook is legendary in our home.  I can bake. I get compliments every time I make Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I’m an excellent baker. However baking & cooking are NOT the same thing.

One time I burnt the chicken for dinner so bad we not only had to have McDonald’s, we had to eat it on the deck because the house was too smoke filled to see.

Luckily for my children and I, my husband is not only a good cook he also truly enjoys cooking.  Which worked out well when we both worked. Most nights he would cook dinner while I did the other parenting duties or straightened up around the house. But when I became a stay at home mom and he took over the earning, I needed to step up and take over dinner.

Before my husband and I got married my oldest sons and I ate from fast food drive thru windows a whole lot.  It was so bad once I pulled up to the bank teller and she asks how she can help me today and my then 3 year old son yells “Chicken Nuggets and French Fries.”

I may have had a problem.

I am much older and a little wiser now. My youngest daughter sees Santa Claus more often than a drive thru.

Today I was walking with the woman who teaches Ben and Sarah (and who has become part of our family) while Sarah was at horseback riding lessons.

I told her that people were telling me I was inspiring them with my weightloss journey. So she asks “How, are you walking with them? What are you doing?”

I responded with “No they are just reading my blog and finding it helpful.”

“Well that doesn’t work for me I hear about your weight loss journey EVERY SINGLE day and all I’ve done is gain weight.”

She says after a few moments,  “But yeah, it’s not you, If you cooked everyday we’d all be skinny.”

“Ouch.”

And then she laughed realizing how that sounded. And finally after I felt like the worst cook in the world for a sufficient amount of time, she stopped laughing and explained.

“No what I meant is you make healthy food. Like we would have a plain baked Chicken breast with brown rice and 5 different vegetables every night for dinner. The kids would only get fruit for dessert, we would never eat out and there would be nothing in the house that was processed, non-organic or even remotely unhealthy. Except your bag of chocolate you keep in your closet that nobody is allowed to touch.”

“However Brian cooks bacon and beef. He uses cream and butter and salt. And he precedes most meals with a cheese course and some kind of decadent but calorie laden dessert masterpiece. You don’t even like ice cream or cheesecake. And when we go out with him geez I can't breathe and I'm sure I'm going to get sick on the drive home.”

Which made me feel like NOT the world’s worst cook, but the world’s meanest mom. 

And definitely not the fun parent, but I already knew that part.

30 days of Thanksgiving

If you want to have a meaningful November, try thankfulness. I got the info from Lisa at Lisa Notes.

For the 5th year in a row, Rebecca at RebeccaWrites is hosting 30 days of giving thanks at her “November of Thanksgiving” celebration.

So for my first day:

This past Saturday, my husband and I celebrated 11 years of marriage.

And by celebrated I mean we demolished the interior of the "old" garage to prepare for converting it to a Great Room.  After that the kids and I shopped for last minute costume accessories for Halloween the next day.

And I went to bed early with a Sinus infection.

It's a long way from some of our more grand Anniversaries.

There's absolutely no doubt we love eachother.  And we show it in little ways everyday.  He brings me my coffe in bed.  I pack his lunch.  He stops in the middle of the day to text me that he loves me.  I call him on the way home to tell him that I love him.

The children in the house know the quickest way to get on Dad's bad side is to disrespect me.  More than once they have been corrected for not saying "Yes Ma'am."  And God help them if they are more disrespectful than that.

I recently read a book by Andy Stanley, about half way through he talks about his children and how he expects they will respect their mother.  And then he makes a statement something to the tune of "What you value the most, you protect the most."

Until I read that line, I never realized that by training our sons (and daughter) to respect me, he was in fact expressing a whole hearted, fully overflowing deep down love that will last a lifetime.  And this is perhpas the most important and treasured gift he has ever given me.

I am thankful for the comfortable, devoted love we have for eachother.

It's about Communication -Stupid.

Yesterday morning, The King and I were talking about our inability to get every one moving in the right direction in the morning (see (Still) not back in the routine.) So we decided to get some things done at night; making lunches, laying out clothes, finding wayward shoes, etc. We also agreed if parent a made dinner parent b would take care of the morning prep stuff. So last night he had to work late. I made dinner, fed the kids and verified homework before heading out to BTS night. You can surely imagine my surprise when I came home at 7:45 to him sitting in the Living Room. So saying nothing (my mistake) I began taking care of the things that needed to get done, huffing and puffing all the way. Still not saying a word, just expecting his Jedi Mind powers to know why I was pissed. Finally after my lunch was packed, The Princess's lunch was packed, her clothes laid out on our bench, Boo's clothes on the Living Room table, Boo's snack packed, he has the nerve to ask if I need any help. "And what's wrong anyway?" Oh yeah, he asked what was wrong. So I told him and
him: "why didn't you say something when you walked in?"
me: "why should I have to say something?"
him: "because I can't read minds."
me: "Oh yeah that."

So I created my own problem. Yes, he should know. And yes I am justified for getting peeved that he didn't know or just didn't bother. But I allowed it to escalate. I clammed up and waited on him to decipher my huffing and puffing. I'm convicted -so is he. And this morning he brought me coffee in bed and I got to work before 8AM. :)

I felt God calling

Late last Friday, on the occasion of my husband's 40-something-th birthday, I felt God calling. My technology use (computer, iPhone etc.) has long been an issue in my marriage and quite frankly my life. I seem to have a tendency towards OCD in this department. I can spend hours online when I meant only to pop in and look for a specific email. I know this is something many of us struggle with. Adding a blog to my "online vices" doesn't help the situation.

So my husband -- being my husband -- wanted nothing for his birthday. That is he did not want me to buy him anything. Except for maybe a new Honda cafe style motorcycle and since finances ruled that one out, I was back to square one.

Last Friday afternoon as I was surfing the web, yet again, I heard "Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)." Be still, hmmmm a mother of 4 commanded to be still? No really, God what is it that you want me to do? I believed God wanted my time. He wanted my attention, he wanted my thoughts.

So I gave it to him. All weekend no online. I wasn't still but my thoughts were. I was focused on the thing that I was doing at the moment. Those things were varied. At one moment I was watching my daughter play soccer, but I actually watched her. I didn't facebook, I didn't text -- I watched her. Another moment I was with her at a birthday party. Again with her. Wholly and completely with her.

Later I was reading a book I'm reviewing for Booksneeze "Seeds of turmoil". I wasn't flipping back and forth between the book and Drudge Report, I was reading. I was focused on whatever God needed me to hear.

Sunday afternoon, I was truly still for about 4 hours after I made dinner I was still. I laid on the couch, semi-reading, semi-cuddling the dogs, semi-listening to my children sing songs they heard in Sunday School that morning. And that has made all the difference.

I feel more at peace this week. I'm less frustrated. I am more here (where ever I am) than I feel like I've been in months. And yesterday, when my husband and I took the day off together, I barely looked at my facebook all day. I think he appreciated it.

I think I'm going off the grid every weekend from now on.