Ready for Spring

I am not sure if I am being lulled into a false sense of spring arriving with this beautiful weather or if we will have another freeze. I just wanted to share a few photos of flowers that have been brightening my kitchen the past week.

                                                         Valentine roses from my sweetie

                                                               Gerbera Daisies from a student

Happy Hibiscus blooming in the kitchen window

                                      Primrose on clearance for $1.00 at the grocery store

                                                 
                                                      Violets are finally blooming again

No More Jack in the Box!

OK, Fettuccine Alfredo Girl....

Sorry we didn't get this lesson in before we left! I am going to explain and show pictures for one part of the dish at a time. The whole thing took me a little over 45 minutes but I also stopped to take pictures and do a load of laundry for Nana  ;)  as I went along.

Cut up your chicken into chunks and put it in your square glass dish (I used more chicken than you will and a larger dish), give it a few good shakes of salt and pepper and cover it with 1/2 cup of water, stir it around to make sure all the pieces have some seasoning on them. Put it in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Wash your cutting board, knife, and counter really well with soap and water.

When it comes out, it will have a bit of a film on it from any fat not removed, just stir it around, it will be fine.

See? All good.

Get your broccoli out, we talked about making sure it is dark green at the store. I forgot to tell you to look at the stalk and make sure it is not moldy. Rinse your broccoli and use a different cutting board for this. Try to have a plastic/glass for meat and a different one for veggies and fruit. Cut the bottom of the stalk off and then turn it over - you'll see natural places to break off  "the branches" - cut the stalk some more if needed.

 Don't be afraid to cut it into smaller pieces - this is not an exact sceince - it's what you want!

 

 

Put a pot of water on, once it boils, toss it in. I cook mine for about 5 mins - cook yours longer for mushier or shorter for crunchier. Again, it is an experiment. Keep trying until you get it the way you want it.

Follow directions for the pasta - you don't need help reading the box :) Pour it out away from you, not towards you and GO SLOW. The steam hurts - A LOT.

Alfredo sauce - the part you have been waiting for......

 

You like the tub butter for your bread and for spreading - that is fine. When you cook, you need stick butter - it's just different. One stick of butter, 1/2 block of cream cheese, 1 cup of parmesan and 2 tablespoons of milk. Put it all in the pan together on low  to medium low heat.

 

Stir it every couple of minutes.

It gets thick.

 

 When it gets to be a giant blob that looks a little like paste take it off the stove and add 1/4 cup of milk and stir some more. The parmesan we bought is a little thick and didn't melt completely, I promise everyone here ate it any way.

Arrange it on your plate and be proud - you DID IT!!!

 

There is enough sauce for you, Nana, and Dixie to eat one meal and freeze the same amount for a second meal.

Ponchoswaddlingblanket

I found a pair of knitting needles tucked away in a bag with a few rows of pink I had started many years ago. I was determined to finish it off for a girlfriend having her first child. My first blanket was made a little over 9 years ago, for my own child; this would be my second full fledged attempt at knitting a blanket. Assisted by youtube videos it came back pretty quickly. Once I got to the end (another youtube video) I misjudged how much was left and by the time I realized I was going to run out and not have enough to finish off the row it was too late. I couldn't figure out how to take a row off either. Off to the store to see what I could find remotely close to the 8 year old yarn I had started with. I found a complementary color and added it on.

I finished it off and ended up with a long crooked strip of a blanket and wondered how I could camouflage it into something a bit more presentable.

And decided it was just crooked enough to look like a poncho, so I improvised. After finishing off the last row with beige, I then "wove" the beige through the outside edge of the rest of it and added a few tassels.

I finished up with a ponchoswaddlingblanket for new baby - made with way more love than skill.

 

A good friend reminded me the best thing about crafts is that no one has to know what the real plan was.

 

"God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved"

As foster parents we have hit rock bottom. In the 10 months since our foster son has been here we have had a roller coaster life that we could have never imagined. My husband has answered the question, “How is it?” with “the highs are higher and the lows are lower than we anticipated.”

Our private agency has been far less supportive then promised in our initial training and we have not been able to successfully stay in touch with any members of our class. We aren’t sure where normal is. We have our normal, case workers tell us the behaviors we see in our foster child are normal. There is a huge gap in these two normals. I often don’t know who to talk to and feel  alone on this road I strongly encouraged my husband to take with me.

My husband always tells me church makes me feel better. When we get lazy and don’t go he sees a difference. We were traveling home last week and missed church and due to squabbling boys while I was greeting, we almost missed again today. We walked out the door and to the edge of the courtyard and stopped, talked, and went back in to try again.

During my time greeting, the Bishop’s wife stopped to talk to me and talked to the boys as they were bickering over who was going to sit on which step. She told me she has grandsons who are 15 months apart and says they have fought since day 1. I explained our older child had been an only child until 10 months ago when he finally received the sibling he had always wanted and we were still learning what was “normal” and what was not. She said one of those grandchildren had just been diagnosed with Type II diabetes and they were all getting used to their “new normal.”

The sequence hymn was "Amazing Grace", one of the songs on the soundtrack of my life.

Prior to Sunday school, the lead teacher looked at me and said, “I would really like to talk to you and hear your story.” I told her this wasn’t the best week to be asking; she answered she would rather hear it on a bad week. Adoption has always been a goal of hers and everything she has read has talked about how difficult it really is. We talked a bit about support systems etc and told her we felt we had pretty much hit rock bottom the other day and now it was fix it or quit. I told her there were other families at work that had been through fostering and adoption but it isn’t a big open discussion that I can pick up the phone and just call any of them to talk. She said she felt like many people probably ended up with the same feelings we have but that it is very hard to talk about and admit to those feelings to anyone when times are bad. It was a very genuine warm conversation and I felt like she really did care about our success and that she did want to listen and help in any way she could.

After church we ended up walking out to the parking lot with the Bishop and his wife and as she was walking away she said, “remember puppies, let them grow together and they will nip at each other and growl at each other, but they will grow.”

We are slowly bridging the sometimes seemingly huge chasm of normals to find OUR new normal. I have support that I didn’t realize I have and continue to find more support on a daily basis. I know I am not alone in this adventure as a foster mom.

Jason Mraz has a song entiled, "I Won't Give Up" which is currenlty another song on the soundtrack of my life.

"I Won't Give Up" from  www.azlyrics.com

Hmmmm ... Hmmmm ... Hmmmm ... Hmmm ...

When I look into your eyes
It's like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
There's so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you've come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up

And when you're needing your space
To do some navigating
I'll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find

'Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We've got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it
No, I won't give up

I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn't break, we didn't burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not
And who I am

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
Still looking up.

I won't give up on us (no I'm not giving up)
God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)
We've got a lot to learn (we're alive, we are loved)
God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up

 

Texas Skies

The skies have been taunting us for days in the hopes of rain. Rain has been falling  around the area but not right here at home. Friends have been posting their pictures and updates of the beloved wet falling from the sky.

Today was the day we thankfully had a nice short downpour.

Rain makes everything better.

Fig turnovers

Mom asked for figs and dark chocolate. I found both at Whole Foods and took her treats to her, we had a lovely visit. I got home and couldn't decide what to do with the rest of the figs; Whole Foods wouldn't sell me just one or two. I searched the internet and my cookbooks and settled on fig turnovers using the flavors and ingredients that jumped out at me from the recipes I did find. Puff pastry, fresh fruit, walnuts, honey, and a bit of chocolate. I made a variety including fig and cherry with chocolate, fig and apple with nutmeg and mace, fig and grape with balsamic, and some non fig turnovers for the boys who had no interest in figs. Served them with some mascarpone and candied walnuts.

Sunday in the yard

Now that the temperatures are going to hit 100 all this week, I finally found some time to plant some seeds; we'll see how that works out for me. I received a number of seed packages as a gift, had a huge bag of potting soil calling my name and a variety of containers to choose from. I chose the old wheelbarrow with very little in it, a BBQ grill with rust in the bottom, and a cracked pot hanging out next to the air conditioning unit.



The hydrangeas were beginning to fade so I trimmed all but one bloom a week ago and had them laying on the counter enjoying them and watching them collect dust. My husband suggested a put them in a covered cake plate on a shelf in the kitchen. I left the last bloom on the plant so the lizard can still have his favorite hangout.