Just a reminder that today “Simple Mom” started the five week, spring cleaning, hot spot project.
Check it out… this week’s hot spot – the wardrobe!
Even if you don’t follow all of the challenge, it might motivate you to get some extras done around the house that you weren’t originally planning to tackle!
I created this taco recipe last month. It’s a keeper!
Chicken Tacos
3 chicken breast halves, cooked and diced or shredded
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 t cumin
1 t paprika
1/2-1 t chili powder, depending on how hot you like it and how hot your chili powder is!
1/2 t salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup salsa
*optional – diced fresh pineapple
Saute the green pepper, red pepper, onion, garlic clove, and chicken in a bit of oil on medium-high heat until the vegetables are tender. Add seasonings, water, and salsa and cook on medium heat about 5 to 10 minutes longer, until meat is nice and flavored throughout. If desired, add diced fresh pineapple for a sweet, mysterious punch!
Serve in soft tortilla shells (or hard taco shells if you prefer) and layer with toppings: cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream and whatever else your heart desires!
As always, enjoy! ~smile~
Some of you will think I am crazy, but for a while now I have been dreading this day – a day my husband had planned with much reservation on my part. Today was the day we had a meeting with an interior decorator, an opportunity most people would greatly appreciate. We are wanting to remodel our family room, and with its awkward layout, we felt it would be good to get others’ opinions. We’ve thought that for years now, but finally, I had started to get things settled in my brain – a picture of what I would do and what my family room would look like in the end. I worried that this mysterious woman would come into my home and shatter every good thought I had. I worried that I would feel somewhat put off as the homemaker of my home.
The woman entered and seemed very pleasant. After much discussion and interaction, she proposed many ideas. Most of her ideas were actually very good. I did have a somewhat subdued struggle inside of me, as I tried not to feel inferior or pushed aside. In the end, though, the meeting went very well. The woman expressed that she was here to help us have thoughtful lives and to work with us rather than against us.
As I walk away from today’s encounter, I encourage myself to take more chances in life and most of all, yet again: learn to trust my husband.
My daughter took this photo.
Tonight I had a date with my young daughters. My niece was at her basketball game, and the men of the house were bonding with other men and boys at a church game night. My daughter and I had fun together eating dinner, making S’Mores with chocolate chip cookies, playing “Cooking Mama” on the Wii, supervising the baby, and tying up the night with a blazing fire and an episode of “The Waltons”.
The episode of “The Waltons” was touching and meaningful. The mother was celebrating a birthday. She was distraught over the day, feeling like she was losing her youth and seemed to be hitting a bit of a mid-life crisis. She said to her husband, “Who would I be without you and the kids?” She was definitely struggling, trying to embrace who she was as a person – after all, she was “just” a wife, mother, and homemaker – nothing glamorous.
John-Boy’s birthday present brought the episode around full-fold and helped his mom embrace the day and her calling in life. He had decided to read a poem to his mother as a gift. John-Boy found his mother sitting alone outside and orated “The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Throughout the movie, Olivia had been preoccupied with an airplane and its splendor. The discovered poem spoke of a Falcon and its grandeur.
BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
To Christ our Lord
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
When he had finished reading the poem, John-Boy’s mother expressed that the poem seemed like a mystery to her but it was so beautiful, “Like listening to music”. He explained its meaning to her, that the simple things in life are really such wonderful things. It was not said plainly, but the viewer got the message: Olivia’s life as a mom and homemaker was one of great worth! John-Boy was reassuring his mother that she should think of her “simple” life as one of splendor!
In our culture, it is easy to feel discouraged at times, wondering if what we are doing really matters… wondering if we are doing ourselves a disservice by being “cooped” up in our homes… wondering if we should be using our minds and hearts for more nobler purposes.
Remember this women, wives,
mothers, and homemakers…
What you are doing is one of the most superb things in the world! You are building homes, building lives, building societies and futures!
The home is the training ground and
refuge for all souls.
Your “simple” life is one of grandeur!
Yesterday I posted that “Life as Mom” blog is hosting a spring cleaning project starting next Monday, but it is actually “Simple Mom” that is hosting it. The initial blog just made reference to the project. My nursing baby-interrupted sleep is catching up with me and causing brain fog! I did fix the info. in my post but wanted to clarify things again for anyone who missed it!
Have a blessed day!
With it being March 1, many of us start thinking about spring. Then we, inevitably, think of “Spring Cleaning”, right?! Well, if you haven’t thought about it, now is the time to get your mind in gear. We’ve had some bright, sunshine-y, blue sky days recently, and they have energized me! My mind is finally starting to “think spring” and yes, think about spring cleaning.
If you need some extra motivation, “Simple Mom” blog is hosting a five-week spring cleanup session, beginning next Monday. Check it out…
I really, probably, shouldn’t be blogging right at this moment. I’ve got to leave for piano lessons in an hour and a half, if Brian can’t make it home by then, which is looking like it will be the truth! I also have plenty other things I could do: work on some laundry, make dinner, make food for the baby, make sure Ava isn’t eating anything mysterious on the floor, finish some school subjects, and whatever else comes along! However, as I have said before, “blogging is therapy” and sometimes, you just feel better after you have blogged and emptied your noggin a bit. Therefore, here I am!
I have been evaluating and trying to improve my life constantly. Within the past few years, my life has become exponentially more demanding. Through it all God is teaching me to take life “day by day”. There are times when I feel pretty discouraged and worn out, but there are also times when I feel strengthened to plunge ahead and keep going!
Something happened within the past couple days that encouraged my heart, and I thought I would share it with you. My nine year old son started writing a story, on his own initiative, and he is excited about it.
This is a huge deal because my son does not like to write. Whenever he has to do a writing assignment, it is torture for him to get through the process usually. Once he is done, he does see and feel the reward, but it takes him a long time to get there. Even to sit down and write a few sentences about something he reads can be grueling. However, I did not give up! I continued to give him assignments and work with him, knowing that some day – hopefully – this would get easier.
Seeing him excited to write his story has blessed my heart tremendously. I was reminded of how things can be so difficult, but in the end, you will see fruit! A farmer must do a lot of work to see a crop succeed! There is soil preparation, planting, tender care of the young plants, watering, weeding, and waiting involved! The farmer could get very discouraged waiting to see the fruit that will yield on his plants and decide to tear them all down or worse yet, never even start the process. May we not be that way. May we be encouraged to press on… persevere… endure… keep refining… simplify… and pour into our home and families so we may see FRUIT some day!
May God’s blessing be with you this week as you press on in His will for your life!
