Exhausted

My oh my, it feels like it's been a crazy week.

I've had moments where I feel like I can't get my feet underneath me. Like I'm working, but making no progress. Treading water. Barely staying afloat.

And then I wonder how women with children and families manage a household without super powers. I'm barely managing a household of two. And what discourages me most is that my list of things to accomplish doesn't even seem that long, but somehow I don't have enough hours in the day to get it all done. Does anyone else out there have periods of time like this?

I find myself trying to improve "the system" when I experience stress and discouragement like this. I rearrange my chores, make more lists, cross off lists, put lists in different places, reminder alarms on my phone, and sticky notes on the mirror. Everything short of tying a string to my finger, I've tried it.

And I'm exhausted.

Teaching sixth grade used to leave me feeling this way every single day.  I remember it so vividly. And how I constantly had to turn to God for the strength to make it through the day hour. What's so different about now? I was reflecting on that this week as I was reading in Psalms, and I noticed a continual blatently obvious theme of God's soverignty over our lives. He doesn't promise no stress, and He doesn't promise no pain, but He does promise to be in control of it all. And when I turn to Him with my arms full of burdens, He happly takes them from my arms and carries them for me, freeing me up to worship Him, and walk next to Him on this journey.

Resting in Him is such an incredible peace. I don't know why I fight back, struggling to remove the burden from His arms and carry my own load for myself. God didn't create me to live separate from Him, searching for my own perfectionism apart from Him. Deep down, when I stop and think about it, all I really want is for Him to be glorified with this life that is already His, but I can't do that on my own. That would be worthless.

I must surrender. Not improve the system.

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Christmas Season IS HERE!

Guys, we've started our Christmas season. 

The tree is up.

Decorations are out.

The first presents have been purchased.

 Ella has a new favorite spot. 

 I told her if she stays under the tree, she's gonna be a present for someone else!

 She doesn't think I'll go through with it.

How does your pet(s) handle the tree? 

XOXO!

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Tour Momma's House

Mom's a collector.

 She loves beautiful things.

 Especially red and blue things made of glass.

 And pears.

 Pears litter her living room.

It's like Where's Waldo with pears in her dining room.

 Mark thought this chicken looked funny. He say's we're not going to ever decorate with chickens. 

I'm okay with that.

 Milk anyone?

 Her antique fireplace kept us mighty warm as we celebrated the holiday.

How many candle's can you count?

 And Mark kept the fire roaring. Pyro to the core.

 Check out all those nicknacks.

I love my mama. She's one good garage saler and collector. 

And if you ever need a potato peeler, tea pot, or fake pear, she's got several. 

Love you, Mom!

XOXO!

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Thanksgiving Recap

This Thanksgiving had some serious highs and maaayyybe a few lows. 

Highs: 
Time with Mom at Mom's House
Cooking with Mom
Blessing Mom with providing all the food
Time with brother
Time with Mark
Successfully cooking my first turkey
Dessert (went unpictured, but was delish)
Sharing the gospel with brother


Lows:
Family drama (it happens! What can you do?)
Eating waaaay too much

But it was seriously a perfect meal. Here's a recap of our day.

 Bacon for brussel sprouts

 My infamous roasted winter veggies

 I'd never cooked sprouts before, so this was an adventure.

 Mom set a beautiful Thanksgiving table.

And if you've never seen my mom's house, it's beautiful, but FULL of stuff. 

I will give you a full tour of her house tomorrow.

Three corn kernels to represent three things you're thankful for. 

One before the prayer over the meal.

One after the meal.

One after dessert.

One day I'd like to have festive place settings. --Mark, are you reading this??!

One of the fun things for me this Thanksgiving was that Mom wasn't able to cook the whole meal due to her recent travel to Nepal and the jet lag that comes with it. So I planned, purchased, and prepared almost all the meal.

And Mom became an extra set of hands!

 Our Thanksgiving tradition is the cranberry salad. As far as I know, my great grandma made this for Thanksgiving, and so did my grandma, and so does my mom, and now.....me!

Raw cranberries and sugar chopped finely in the food processor. Fresh whip cream, and mini marshmallows, and chopped pecans folded in. Refrigerate for one hour. YUM!

 Isn't her kitchen cute? Can you guess her name?? (look above the sink.)

Mom prefers to chop pecans by hand for the cranberry salad.

 Appetizer jelly raspberries

 THE TURKEY I COOKED!

Maybe the best brussel sprouts of my life--the only dish that provided zero leftovers.

 

 

 A little gravy for the best turkey on earth.

  

I know I said it a thousand times already, but it was an outstanding meal. 

Dessert went by so fast there was no time for pictures. I assure you, it was also amazing.

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving too!

Tell me about it? Got any highs/lows?

XOXO!

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Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Hi Guys! Happy Thanksgiving!!

 It's a rainy cozy Thanksgiving Day today. I was debating going for a pre-pigout run, but the rain encouraged me to stay on the couch.

Thanksgiving is at Mom's house. She just returned from her annual trip to Nepal two days ago, so she's been recovering from jet lag and her fridge is still bare.

 So we offered to bring over all the food for Thanksgiving, and cook it with her at her house.

We're keeping it simple and gluten free for four people. Mom, Brother, Husband, Me.  I have a 12 lb turkey, pumpkin soup, brussell sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, and cranberry salad for the main meal.

And for dessert, GF dark chocolate pumpkin oatmeal cookies and GF apple crisp. 

I whipped these little tasty morsels a few days ago, and they are absolutely incredible.

 They're low in sugar, packed with pumpkin and the dark chocolate chips are a tasty finish.

My GF brother is gonna love them. And I confess, I've been sneaking them out of the freezer every night this week. So he may have to fight me for the last one!

With only 110 calories per cookie, I'm okay with that.

GF DARK CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN OATMEAL COOKIES
(makes 24 cookies)
 
1 cup GF oats
1/2 cup Pamela's GF pancake and baking flour mix
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup Nestle dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oats, flours, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar well. Add applesauce and egg and blend together. Add vanilla and pumpkin puree.

Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until just wet. Fold in the chocolate chips. Dough will be very thick. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Use a fork to press down on the dough ball as these don't spread out much.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the tops are slightly golden. Allow cookies to cool 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

~ 110 cal per cookie! Not bad.
If you don't need gluten free cookies, the original recipe called for 1 cup of all-purpose flour. 

Enjoy!

XOXO!

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Chicken Pad Thai

 We make a pretty mean Pad Thai at our home.

But imagine cilantro and green onions on top of this for true Pad Thai. I didn't have any when I made it. So I added broccoli instead.  In my mind it was a fair trade.

 Made with chicken breast, rice noodles, and a homemade sauce, this is the best recipe I've found.

Doesn't that look good?

It gives a Thai restaurant some stiff competition!

PAD THAI

(adapted from KNACK Thai Cooking Book by Darlene Anne Schmidt)

serves 2 as main meal

1 chicken breast

1 tsp cornstarch

2 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce

8 oz Thai rice noodles linguini width

2-4 tbsp oil for frying

5 garlic cloves

3 cups bean sprouts (sometimes I omit these)

chopped broccoli or other greens (optional)

3 green onions, chopped

1 cup cilantro

1/3 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts

Pad Thai Sauce

3/4 tbsp tamarind paste

1/4 cup hot water

2 tbsp good fish sauce

1-3 tsp chili sauce, to taste

2-3 tbsp brown sugar

Slice the chicken into bite size pieces. Dissolve cornstarch in a the soy sauce and pour over the chicken. Stir well and set aside to marinate.

To make the pad Thai sauce, dissolve the tamarind paste in the hot water, then add all the other sauce ingredients, stirring to combine and dissolve the sugar. You need the sugar to balance out the sourness of the tamarind. 

Soak the noodles in a pot of pre-boiled water until they are soft enough to eat, but are still quite firm and a little crunchy. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Warm a wok over medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp oil and the garlic. Stir fry until fragrant (30 seconds to a minute). Add the marinated chicken  (and greens) and stir-fry 5 minutes, or until chicken is cooked. When your wok becomes dry, add a tbsp of water, just enough to keep ingredients frying nicely. 

Add the noodles to the wok, plus the Pad Thai sauce. Using two utensils, quickly stir-fry the noodles using a tossing motion. Stir-fry 1-2 minutes. If the wok becomes a little too dry, add more oil. 

Add bean sprouts, green onions, and cilantro, and stir fry one more minute. Garnish with peanuts. 

For a twist, add 1 tbsp peanut butter to Pad Thai sauce, OR add 1 tsp red curry paste to Pad Thai sauce. Both are delicious.

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Starfish

 It was a beautiful November day today. Mark and I set out on a little beach adventure and I wanted to share with you just a few photos from our expeditions. We headed out near our house and found some cool rocks, lots of seaweed, and this really cool starfish.

Mark is becoming such a great photographer! 

Have a beautiful day!

XOXO!

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