Blondie Makes It All Better

I just had the unfortunate experience of visiting a blog that made my heart truly hurt. It was supposed to be a blog about eating healthy and how as Americans we over consume everything. Hey, on these two things I am in complete and total accordance. It makes me physically ill how much we have and how much we waste. When my husband and I go to dinner we will order one meal and share it because the portions are gigantic. The only part where I fall off the wagon is saying mean and hurtful things about someone else that does not share my opinion. Who are we to judge each other? Yes, we can be sad that someone does not 'get it'. But to be so outright judgemental and mean about another human being? I just can't go along with that.

I thought it would be fitting to go ahead and share one of my favorite recipes. Go ahead and eat it up. There will not be anyone saying your a bad person for doing it, here.

Blondie
3 eggs
1 stick of butter
1box (16 oz) brown sugar
2 cups self rising flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups walnuts
1 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix eggs and softened butter well. Add brown sugar. After that is mixed well, slowly add flour. Add vanilla. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Make sure your pan is greased well. I like to use a larger bar pan to make mine, but you can use a 9x13 if you don't have a larger one. I bake it for about 20 min. Just watch the top and pull it out when it gets a little brown.

*Don't ask me what blog it was because I am sparing you the pain of reading it and I don't want for her to get one more person on her counter from me.

A Love Story

It has been requested (and I love requests, because then I don't have to come up with something new and clever) by my sweet friend 'Carlston' (I'm all about the anonymity since my blog is not private) to share my love story. So here it goes...

I graduated from highschool in 1996. My husband and I are not highschool sweethearts. We did not really know each other at all, which was probably better off since I was sort of snotty and he was sort of country. Anyway, I ended up moving around a lot in an effort to figure things out. (This is all another story, definately for another day) It should be said that I did have some very kind people come into my life and I will always appreciate what they did for me, even if I was not able to necessarily show it then. I think I was looking for love, maybe looking for 'home', I don't know what but definately in search of something that I thought I might find out in the world somewhere. I lived out and about for about two years. I met a lot of people and had a lot of fun but soon began to realize that what I was missing was not going to be found outside. I met some really nice guys and dated around a little, but no one seemed to be headed in the same direction as me. Not that I was headed in some great direction, I was not in college and I was a hostess at Chili's, but I guess I was just looking for more. Who knows? I didn't know what I wanted I just knew I wasn't finding it.
I ended up back home in Georgia. (meanwhile, Josh graduated highschool in 1997) I was doing the whole Singles thing in church and still just dating around. I remember after one date (that was a perfectly nice date) my friend asked me if I would consider going out with the guy again. I said, "He seems like a really nice guy, but I just don't think he will love me the way I want to be loved." I didn't know exactly how that was supposed to be, I just knew that guy wouldn't do it.
Then my best friend, Leah, said, "You know who I see you with? Josh." I said, "Really?" It got me thinking...hmm...maybe...
So, the next Sunday, I sat next to him at church. (In a seat that apparently he had been making sure was kept open for me.) The teacher had brought apple slices for a little treat for us. I'm not a big fan of apples but I took a bite off of one and then decided I didn't want it. I offered the rest of the tainted apple to Josh. He took it and ate the rest of it no questions asked. This was it. I was in love. I had found the man that would be able to love me just how I wanted. How could I have known that just because he ate an apple slice after I had already bitten off of it? I don't know, I shudder to think of what my life would be like had he not eaten it.
We got engaged after 4 weeks of dating. He never did the whole one knee thing. Remember, he was only 19. We just decided we were in love and we should get married. We were married 6 months later. That never should have worked out. I tell ya, that first year was very tough. (again, a whole nother story that will never be shared)

But it did, and 9 years and 4 beautiful kids later we are still very much in love.

There Must Be Balance

Thanks so much for all your comments to my post yesterday. It felt good to know that I was not the only one who had these frustrations. Emma Mae and I are doing much better today.

That said, I know that I did a lot of complaining yesterday, so today I wanted to look on the brighter side of things. I try to keep a postive view on things. I believe that in every story there is a positive and a negative, a yin and a yang, a good and a bad, a light and a dark, you get my drift. So here are some ways that I could have looked at things a little more positively, yesterday:

-Since I had already somewhat brushed my teeth with Jonathon's toothbrush (read more about that in yesterday's comments) I didn't have to worry about that again for the rest of the day.

-Since most of my kids are not in school, I didn't have to get them out of their pj's all day. They didn't get dressed until grandma came to get them.

-Since I don't have a job I didn't have to deal with the guilt that would inevitably come with calling in sick.

-Thankfully, my husband is in a position at work where he can run home when I need him. (even if it takes a little longer than I think it should)

Also, since my husband bore the brunt of my frustration, I felt like I should share the sweetest thing he has ever said to me. (going back to that whole yin and yang thing, in case I lost ya)

The other day, I'm standing in the kitchen cooking dinner and he comes in. He says, " I just figured out why I love our girls so much." I say, "Yeah?" (thinking he is going to share some really gross story about something one of them has done now) But instead, he says, " It's because they remind me so much of you." Now, to those of you who do not know my husband you may be thinking, "no big deal, he probably saw that in a movie or something". But that is not him. He does not say anything like that, ever, so it meant the world to me. He's pretty great. (most of the time)

So there it is. The light to my dark. I know that I'm a lucky girl.

Whine Oh, Whine

Did anybody miss me yesterday? I know one of you three that read my blog must have missed me. Well, in order for you to get a full understanding of my day yesterday we have to go back in time. Let's go back to Monday night...

I was starting to feel a little achy and had gotten a little bit of a cough. The kids were really tired so bedtime was no big deal. I took some cough medicine that was supposed to knock me out so I wouldn't be up all night coughing. Unbeknownst to me, I would be up all night anyway.

About 11:30 I am awoken from my good cough syrup sleep, by Emma Mae screaming and crying. Now, she has been sleeping through the night for some time now. I am an ignorer. I learned after my first child to ignore them and they will go back to sleep. After about 10 minutes of her crying I could tell that it was not going to end. I went in and got her and we rocked in the living room for about 30 min. Then I just had to put her back to bed. I was so exhausted.
About 1 am she is still crying. I get her out again and take her for 30 more minutes in the rocker. Finally, she is so exhausted that she gives in and I put her back to bed. I get back in bed and hope that she is so tired that she will sleep later than normal, allowing me a little more sleep time.
About 4 am Jackson is up now. He was trying to get in bed with us. I tell him he has got to go back to his bed. He says ok and he heads back to his bed. I get back over to the bed and he is back again. He says, "momma, I need pants." Like he is going to be visited in bed by someone who might think less of him for not having pants on. I say ok and I get him some pajama pants and he is back in bed. Thank goodness.
About 5:45 Josh is up and getting ready for work. I beg him to please take Jonathon to school so I can get some more sleep. He says he will but I have to get him dressed. I am thinking really, I have to get out of bed and go get our 7 year old dressed so that you will take him to school? But being the good wife and mom I am, I get up and go get him dressed. There is no going back to bed now because Madi is making her early morning appearance.
Now I am really feeling achy and my face is starting to hurt and a migrane is coming on.
About 8 am I call Josh and beg him to bring me some breakfast while he is doing his running around. He says he will.
About 10:30 Josh calls and asks if he can just bring me lunch because he will not be able to get here anytime soon. (meanwhile, I am lying on the couch and Madi and Jackson are running amuck)
About 1pm Josh finally makes it with a sandwich. Thanks. By this time my head is going to explode but there is not one thing I can do because I have 3 kids that need my attention. And so on and so on. I only continued to feel worse but thankfully my mother in law came to get the kids so I could rest.
Anyway, my point to all of this is where is my timeclock. When can a stay at home mom punch out? This job is a 24 hour a day job and somedays I just think it would be nice to call in sick. So if anyone asks about me, I am wandering around kids in tow, baby on hip, timecard in hand looking for the timeclock...

Good help is hard to find (Part II)

So, I'm talking to my new Laundry Inspector and I say, "You know anyone who is good with a vacuum?". She says, "Yeah, I know a guy." She brings him over and he looks like he knows what he's doing. He says he'll work cheap, so maybe I'll give him a shot, too. Don't ask for their numbers, though, I don't want them jacking the prices up on me, if you know what I mean.

Good help is hard to find

I've recently gotten a new laundry inspector at the house. She is really great. She does well with the separating it's just hard for her to get all the way up to the knobs. She's very inexpensive, so I think I will keep trying to work with her.

My Most Favoritest Time of the Day

Do you remember the last time you slept that good?