Lost post

Ok something is really wrong here, I lost a picture post from last weekend. I think it had to have been here at some point because Tiffany and I talked about it yesterday. I'm getting ready for a family day, so I probably won't find it today, but I just had to tell whoever is listening that it is indeed missing!!

Think Positive

I See it All on TV...Hannah and Jake

Help!

Ok something happened to blogspot and I can't find my dashboard! Ten years ago this sentence would've sounded like a madlib. Seriously though how will I know if the people I follow have updated without my dashboard? (Still sounds like a madlib doesn't it?) If I had time I might be able to publish a whole post on words we say today that would've sounded like made up words or madlibs 10 years ago. For example I could blog (made up sounding word) about how Mike got a new blackberry (madlib sounding). Unfortunately I am smackdab in the middle of what is turning out the be one of the busiest weeks of the year, so I will not be blogging about those things right now. I only stopped here because I was looking for my dashboard. The blog post about facebook, smartphones, and other made up sounding compund words will have to wait for another day.

Food Glorious Food

My Memere, who passed away four years ago yesterday, loved this guy Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet. Mem loved him so much she affectionately referred to him as the "Froog". Dictionary.com defines frugal this way...
economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful. This makes a lot of sense because one of our most beloved Mem-isms is "waste not want not". She probably said this every day of her life. Mem was known for eating leftovers that the rest of us would call garbage. She liked good food as much as the rest of us though, specifically cheese and lobster. Mem didn't care much for most people's perennial favorites like pizza, burgers, and spaghetti, but she would eat those things, saying, "waste not want not."

I find myself thinking of Mem and her "Froog" a lot today, since I have spent the last few hours in the kitchen turning what some people might call garbage into some really yummy food. Mike had to drive to Tallahassee and back today, and he won't be home until well after dark, so it was just the kids and myself for supper. Earlier in the day I had decided on leftover Easter ham and Annie's macaroni and cheese for dinner. A week or two ago while doing the shopping Mike had come home with fat free sour cream. I'm a fan of skim milk, but I prefer a lot of fat in my sour cream. I'd done a fair job of disguising the "fat free-ness" by mixing it with regular sour cream, but we still had some left. Guess what, when you make Annie's macaroni and cheese with fat free sour cream, it's a win win! And there went all the fat free sour cream and most of the Easter ham. There was still the issue of the left over Easter mashed potatoes that my mother sent us home with. Combine them with the ground turkey we had in the refrigerator, a packet of brown gravy, and a can of corn, and tomorrow nights shepherd's pie is already put together. I could even make the case for having this meal because Jake and I are doing a 50 days of Easter devotional sticker activity and the last few days have focused on Jesus being the Good Shepherd, so there you go frugal and homeschooly at the same time. While getting out the ham and potatoes I had to move the leftover peanut butter frosting from Madi's birthday. Hmmm, peanut butter frosting... what choice did I have but to make a chocolate cake for it to go on. I'm not going to talk about the fact that it was a from scratch cake made with freshly ground whole wheat and the normal amount of sugar being replaced by a smaller amount of evaporated cane juice and a mushed banana (also very close to being garbage), I try not to talk much about health foody things because the health nuts and exercise nuts that populate facebook really rub me the wrong way. That left only the leftovers of the leftover ham. I thought it would really be good with scambled eggs, but I was in the make right now mood and scrambled eggs made tonight would definitely be garbage by tomorrow morning. Guess what though... breakfast casserole made tonight will be scrumptious tomorrow morning and thus more almost trash turned gourmet!!

Wanna cry? Watch this!!

Like facebook, American Idol gets bashed a fair amount in my circles. I see so much good in it though...like this!

Happy Easter!!

80's Follies

Yes, this show was over a month ago, finally here are some pics!!

So not a soccer mom

The most stressful moment in my week is at 6:30 on Tuesdays when we have to sprint from the theatre to my car (in the far parking lot because the one way street makes that the quickest route) so we can speed to soccer practice and ultimately get there 15 minutes late. {we repeat a similar mad dash on Fridays, but usually the games don't start until 7, so we have a little more leeway}. Soccer is at the bottom of our totem pole, it ranks way below theatre and church and 100 other things. I am learning a lot of lessons from this. Aside from the obvious, 'don't sign up for something that is going to rank so low and still stress you out', the other lesson I'm learning is that sometimes it is ok to do things half way (or should I say half-@$$ed?). We are a committed family (some might say over-committed), but I say that not only about our COMMITMENTS but about our LEVEL OF COMMITMENT. We go all out for things that are important to us. Sometimes to a fault. Often to a fault. We are overly committed to doing everything to make the theatre as good as can be, this includes baking and working concessions at every! single! show!, the kids pushing to get to class 45 minutes early (if they are 30 minutes early they feel late), the five of us showing up at the theatre on a Saturday morning to haul paint cans out of the basement, Mike, who is already gone for work an average of 65 hours a week, committing to being on the board of directors, the kids learning all their lines (and everyone else's) within the first few days of a new show, and Jonathan's hours at the theatre some weeks rivaling Mike's work week. This is not to brag, this is to show our commitment to a fault. We treat our church and specifically our commitment to the youth group the same way. If there is an event our kids are there, we are the pushiest fundraisers, and we may even be developing a trouble maker persona over our commitment to the youth group for our kids. This is how we roll. Madi was clubber of the year 3 out of 4 years in Truth and Training in AWANA (and that wasn't even our church or our denomintation). Jonathan's got two plaques in the theatre with his name on them. Madi started two co-ops at the beginning of the year, she is only one of three left standing in each class (two other different kids in each class). We go all out for things that are important to us. I'm used to being one of the more committed families at any event. This is not the case with soccer. I'm learning that it is ok to be 'regular people' sometimes. Let me be sure to point out that Jake's soccer team is full of families with a sense of responsibilty to soccer that is similar to our sense of responsibility to everything else. Everyone on his team knows one another (they might be related, it is a small town), they all sit together and watch every second of every game (and practice). Madi and Jake practice at the same time. I walk around the field during practice, and while I sneak glances to make sure each of them isn't injured or anything, I don't really pay attention. I've never even spoken to Madi's coach, I don't think I could pick him out of a crowd. They often have games at the same time, we sit somewhere in the middle and attempt to watch what we can of each game. We are sort of the theatre equivalent of people I roll my eyes at. I have a sneaking suspicion that people are rolling their eyes at me. That's ok. Soccer is good exercise, more importantly, it is good for my over-achievers to do something where they aren't trying to be the best. It's good for me. So each week after my most stressful rush to the soccer field, I chill out. They play at an amazing facility. It is a beautiful place to walk, the sun is usually just starting to set, it is on a hill surrounded by orange groves, and once I get passed my natural inclination to give it my best, I remember my best has already been given in too many other places, and I relax. So by about 7pm on Tuesdays I ease into one of my most peaceful times in the week.

{Then practice is over and we rush back to the car because we are starving, then our newest rountine is a late Tuesday night dinner at Chili's because Chili's is contributing to our youth group's donations for Relay for Life on Tuesday nights, and we're back to being overly committed}

Stations of the Cross video

I'm putting this here so I'll know where to find it.