cuz we like to eat

I scrapbook with some buddies.

We’re quite a crew.

There’s the vegetarian.

And the one that doesn’t eat mayo.

The one that’s allergic to cinnamon.

And the one that can’t do milk products.

And believe it or not, we still find things we can all eat and enjoy.

But it’s hard.

I was so excited the other day when I found a recipe tucked into the back of my recipe folder.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

I’d never tried them, so I made them for our weekly get together.

They were so good.

And since I’m just full of love and the spirit of giving today.. I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s so easy and we didn’t miss the meat at all. Really.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (I just put in a bunch of garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 14 ounce can “tomatoes with green chilies”, undrained..who are we kidding here people, it’s called ROTEL and I used the regular
• 1/4 cup picante sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I left those out and it had enough ‘heat’ to go around)
• 2 cups cooked brown rice (I didn’t have all day so I used ‘instant’ brown rice and it worked fine)
• 8 flour tortillas (7 inch size) warmed
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese (I brought it in a bag separately and the girls put in on their enchiladas if they wanted it and zapped it a little bit in the microwave to melt it. Worked fine.)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (Now there is a hot topic..people either love it or hate it. I am not that fond of it, so I omitted it and it tasted fine.)

In a large non stick skillet, saute the green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, cumin and red pepper flakes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through and mixture thickens.

Add rice; cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through. Spoon a rounded half cup down the center of each tortilla. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13 by 9 inch baking dish coated with non stick spray. Spoon salsa over each tortilla. Cover and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese and cilantro. Bakes 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 8 servings.

It sounds harder than it is. I used Pace products for the salsa/picante sauce. One of them is thicker than the other, but for the life of me I can’t remember which. I just bought both and made it according to the recipe. But you could probably wing it. Pace isn’t really my favorite flavor, but I couldn’t think of anything better, so I just went with it. I used mild sauces also and there was enough kick in there for me. I ate a spoon full of filling as I was filling the enchiladas (I got a clean spoon!) and I thought for a minute it was going to be too hot, but it was just right. And if you do the cheese, that helps with the heat too. 

We liked it so well we froze the leftovers. I can’t tell you how well that goes, because we haven’t defrosted it yet.

That’s next week. : )

*tap tap tap*

Is this thing on?

Remember me?

I haven’t posted much lately. It feels like I’m busy but I haven’t been up to that much either. I do know one of the things that has taken up some time is BSF. It does take time to do the homework. Sometimes the questions are ‘easy’ and other times they require a little more digging. But it’s been good. Yippee.. this week Jesus *finally* gets to raise from the dead. I’m so glad. It’s hard to stay with His walk to the cross and His time on the cross for such a long time. So this will be an especially good week of study.

And now for some little bits of random… remember the other day when I asked your opinions on hard anodized non stick cookware. Well here’s the deal.. I bought this the other day.

It’s made out of aluminum and then it’s got some fancy-dancy coating on it and I just wasn’t sure I wanted to cook with it. So it’s been sitting on my floor for a while now while I made up my mind.

Well I made it up. It hit me yesterday that I already have some really nice non stick cookware.

They’re called IRON SKILLETS. Aaaand, I can buy a universal lid for the bigger one and it will work exactly like the pricey model with the fancy coatings on it. So, that’s what I’m going to do!

I started using some new shampoo recently.. told you this was random.. Dove. And I really liked it. I really really liked it..more than Sally Field. Sorry, couldn’t resist throwing that in. Anyway, I went to buy another bottle the other day and they had changed the packaging. That drives me nuts. But I read all my buzz words… cucumber…cool moisture.. and thought we’re all good. And got it home and started using it.. and and and.. I can hardly say it.. they CHANGED IT. I guess I missed the words weightless formula. Y’all, they added conditioner. Kiss of death. It makes my hair all slippery and limp and it won’t do a dog-gone thang! So! I had a chit chat with the girl that does my hair, who knows I have a leaning toward wanting to pick up my shampoo at the Walmart instead of hoofing it over to Sally and paying an arm and a leg. She told me to try TRESemme. I went straight to the Walmart yesterday to get some and I thought I was gonna have a stroke just trying to find the right ‘formula’.. no, not color treated, not extra body, not damaged, not breakage control. I was thinking good-NESS, y’all, I just wanna wash my hair and without it leaving an oil slick. And then I found NORMAL shampoo on the bottom shelf about 4 inches off the floor. Evidently there aren’t very many people out there with normal hair. I feel special. I got home and used it and felt even more special. I’m in love again. Yay!

And speaking of fancy-dancy and hair... we had a hair rehearsal last weekend for a fancy-dancy par-tay the girl is going to on Saturday night. I am not much of a hair ‘doer’ and didn’t have a clue what to do to make her hair look special. So the girl who does my hair make a couple of suggestions and viola…

I think I did a perty good job, thankyouverymuch. And just an fyi.. no she won’t be using the orange clippy. That was just to practice.

The end.

opinions please!

This is probably going to be a temporary post.. but I have a question to ask.

Has anybody used hard anodized non stick cookware before??? I bought a skillet at Bed Bath and Beyond..with a coupon!!!…and then started reading reviews of it and they are very mixed. Some people said the coating got sticky after a while and others said you can’t use oil. Confused! I haven’t used it yet and don’t want to until I can decide whether it’s a keeper or not.

Thoughts???

further ‘from the wall’ evidence *updated with link

Yesterday was BSF. They have monthly luncheons for the small groups. I went the first week I was in a group. I was brand new and only listened. The second luncheon was when I had bronchitis, so I didn’t go. And then yesterday was our last one. So I decided I would go.

The point of this luncheon is to share what God is showing you in real life with what you’re learning through in the lesson. I love that. It’s not a ok, we’re not at church now, so let’s all gossip and talk about whatever we want to talk about. It’s on topic and it truly a sharing time. And the ladies are just precious.

So every girl at the table shared and then it was all eyes on me. I had shared with my BSF group leader that calls every week, as I worked my way through ‘the grief time’ this year. One week she called and I ended up crying all the way through the call. And then the next week, things were better and then the next week, even better.  And she wanted me to share.

For the life of me, I could not think of what to say or how to say it. I didn’t plan anything in particular to say. I’m not even sure I felt led to share. But share I did. I have a hard time when I’m nervous (don’t know these ladies very well) and semi-emotional at the same time. Not a very good combination. I came away thinking I had not conveyed anything of value to them. Just a bunch of scrambled thoughts. I know there were some things God was saying in the midst of my nerves and jumbled thoughts, so I hope they could pick those out. : ) 

But I certainly don’t see any future in public speaking. Blogging is more my medium. I can think without a bunch of eyes staring at me. That gives me time to think through what I’m going to say and I think it edits my words so I don’t ramble and it helps me say just the things God would have me say (hopefully).

So now I’m just praying that God takes my inability to communicate and speak to these ladies in a way that I can’t.

lingering over the lamb

I’m in BSF this year…started in January. So I jumped into the middle of the study of John. I’ve really enjoyed it even though it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done before.  In recent weeks, we’ve been studying Jesus and His days before the cross and now we’re up to when Jesus breathed His last and gave up His Spirit, basically. I’ve had a hard time the last couple of weeks concentrating while doing my study at home. Sometimes I just blamed it on things going on around me or in me and kept going.

I finally stopped the other day to realize that one of the purposes of taking it so slowly (for me anyway) was to really take in all that Jesus had done for me. Awkward. Not something that’s easy to stay with week after week. I know sometimes we talk about Good Friday and then say something about Sunday’s coming. Well, sometimes it feels like Sunday will never get here since we’re dissecting the verses so slowly (which is good). But it is hard to linger over the words of scripture about the spotless and holy Lamb of God and all He willingly suffered for me.

The other day I went to lunch at a friend’s house. It was her birthday and several of us got together to eat and scrapbook. One of the girls brought take out. And it was something I’d never eaten before.  I didn’t say anything about it to them, but it was very hard for me to eat it. I looked at it. I smelled it. And finally I ate it…savoring every bite..being fully aware of every aspect of eating it.

It was lamb.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

It’s random time!

1. How do you feel about "Gladiator" sandals, also called "Roman" or "Jesus" sandals? A fashion yea or nay? I guess if you’re 6 feet something and a size ‘zero’ than maybe they would look ok. But for your average Joanne, umm.. not so much.

2. What is your favorite pizza? The girl and I get ‘the works’ without cheese. And since cheese makes me sick, then I guess that is my favorite.

3. There are plans in the works to sell roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. This means you could buy Picard's chair for your family room. If not a Star Trek item, what prop, background, set, etc. from what TV or movie would you buy if you could?
[Ex: Hurley's "I Love my Shih tzu" shirt from LOST, the plantation home "Tara" from Gone With the Wind, or Tracy's tambourine from the Partridge Family.]  I would love to have the front porch from Andy Taylor’s house. (Andy Griffith Show)

4. Name a local food or restaurant that your area is famous for.  Corn dogs were ‘born’ at the State Fair of Texas, as were a bunch of other artery clogging fried things that I won’t mention.

5. What is your current favorite snack? I’m on a Chex Mix kick right now..but I don’t eat the pretzels or those funny looking skinny white things. Neither of them have any flavor. And it bugs me because I pick them out and it seems to be about 50% chex stuff and 50% pretzels/weird white things. Seems like a bit of rip to me.

6. Hypothetical: You are required to be a reality show contestant. Which show would you choose based on your probability of success? (You cannot choose "none.")
A. Dancing with the Stars
B. Biggest Loser
C. Survivor

Let’s see..can’t dance. Never have and don’t plan on starting now. And frankly, I just don’t know that I could pull off that hot and bothered look that Pamela Anderson some of the female contestants seem to have mastered. So there goes DWTS.  And I think I would cry if I had to live out in the elements and eat bugs and get eaten by them, so no Survivor for me. I guess that leaves The Biggest Loser. Hey.. I need to lose some weight, so that might work for me. I would be the whiny one.  Hey, I’m not proud.

7. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being uninhabitable and 10 being cleanliness that meets the standards of OCD, how clean is your vehicle's interior? It’s decent. It’s got some clutter, but nothing gross. Probably a 7.

8. It doesn't feel like Spring until _________. .. it gets warm.

9. Something that made you laugh really hard recently is ____. The other day, the girl was working on a science worksheet and hubs walked past her door and overheard her reading the question out loud and saying “Psssth, I don’t know the answer to that!” (it’s called learning…you do it with books) Hubs told me what he heard and I think I laughed harder than I’ve laughed in a long time. It just struck me funny.

10. Tell me about a goal you're working toward.  Getting all the photos from the little kid/sick kid years into books so we can look at them. I’ve begun the process and Boo has enjoyed seeing pix of herself she’s never seen. That has made me feel bad and spurred me on to complete the task.

11. Share a thought-provoking or inspiring quote this week. This is something that has come to mind over and over as I’ve been studying the crucifixion in BSF and being asked to answer questions about various events. “Satan is a great help heavenward.” I believe E.M. Bounds said that and it’s just so profound and applicable sometimes.

12. Name one thing that you do as a parent that you absolutely know will make your kids happy. If you're not a parent, feel free to substitute "friend" or nomenclature that works for you. Working on the photos. She’s already enjoying the fruits of the little bit of labor I’ve put into the process.

To check on other’s Random, hop on over to Linda’s place at 2nd Cup of Coffee.

I have a confession to make. I haven’t been a very good Random’er lately. I link up on Wednesday mornings and then head out to BSF. When I get home, I usually try to get a jump on the homework. And by the time I get back to the random, I feel like I’m the last one to the party. But I will try harder to check more of you out this week.  : )

First April Random

1. Define a great relationship. I love this question!  A great relationship is one where you show up not wearing makeup and nobody notices or cares. Mutual service… putting the other ahead of themselves. I’m really thinking about girl friends.. I’m not getting into spouses and all that stuff.

 
2. Why is it called a "drive-through" if you have to stop? (Real question: What was the last food/drink you purchased at a drive-through?) Chick-fil-a sandwich and large unsweet tea.  I really love CFA sweet tea, but I don’t need the extra calories, so I’ve been adding Sun Crystals instead.  : (

3. As I type this, the Butler Bulldogs are getting ready to play in the NCAA championship game. Every Hoosier is hysterical about this except me. So in honor of the Bulldogs ... what is your favorite breed of dog? (I tried.) Poodle. (Not the big kind.) We had one when I was a kid and that was the best and smartest dog ever. I still miss him sometimes..especially when my cat goes on a hating spree.

4. If you had to move to a state besides the one you currently live in, where would you move?  Hmm.. somewhere warmer? Florida maybe?

5. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be? pass on this one. : )

 
6. Who's the funniest person you know? My husband! I never know what he’s going to say next. I think we both embarrass our girl by laughing and carrying on sometimes.

7. Did you get enough sleep last night? Nope. (wrote this on Tues)

8. What's the first thing you thought about this morning? Don’t forget to make lunch for the girl. I forgot yesterday and had to take it up to the school.  Just needed a big sign on my head that said “Pre-occupied. Watch out!”.

9. Grilled or Fried? –HONESTLY Fried! See the drive thru question! I love fried food. But I try not to eat it very often. Chick-fil-a is just about my favorite thing ev-er, so I get that one fried.

10. Are you afraid of the dark? A little bit, yes. We had a  power outage recently during the evening. I was sitting at the computer and behind me the hubs and the girl were discussing school work at the coffee table. Poof! Everything went black. I had to hold back that panicky feeling. Hubs stumbled to the cupboard and got a flashlight. At bedtime it happened again, and I couldn’t sleep until it all came back on. So I stayed up playing solitaire on my iPod Touch waaay late into the night.

11.When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Ya know, I really have no idea. I took a very short ASL class at summer camp one summer and thought it would be fascinating to work with the deaf, but that’s about it.

12. If you had one word to describe yourself , what would you choose? Silly. Scatter-brained. Antsy. Serious. Emotional. Thoughtful. Spiritual. Oh wait..that’s more than one word. I guess it just depends on what kind of mood I’m in, now doesn’t it?! Hubs just walked by and added ‘patient’..(NOT). He’s a funny one, remember?!

For more April Randoms, check out Linda at 2nd Cup.

cyber-hug, y’all!

I’m so thankful for my little corner of the internet. You girls are the best. I so appreciate all your prayers and well wishes yesterday.

It was a good day. I didn’t melt down. My thoughts didn’t even ‘go there’ very much. I had a lot of stuff on my to-do list, so that helped keep me occupied. And I have had this idea on the back burner. I have tons of photos from way back when still in the packages from the photo lab, from the years before we went digital. And nobody ever looks at them because they’re buried in boxes. I’ve hesitated to even count the number of rolls in those boxes, but I did it yesterday. Even though I know I would have to pass my fingers across the years of Bub’s life and all his days as a sick little boy.  I counted 51 rolls of film in all from 98-03. Holy cow! So that might be my next little project around the house. Getting those into some order in books so we can at least look at them.  Not scrapbooking them. Just in albums. But I say all of that to say that I did that.. on that day.. and it was ok. I was so thankful! : )

I do love seeing your comments and feeling your love and prayers so much! When I see your names, I know who you are!  I love that. : )

So thanks again, girls! ))cyber-hug((

8 years

So how is she, really? I’m sure I’ve had that asked about me a lot, so here goes.

Well, this is the anniversary date. This is the day it ended. And began. Bub’s life here ended. His pain and sickness ended. Our pain at watching our child die ended. But other things began. First and foremost, Bub’s eternity began. God gave me the opportunity to see that bringing Bub to Himself was precious to Him. (Psalm 116:15) I was reading through Psalms in the mornings during this time and that was my morning reading the day after, which would have been the day of, but I skipped that morning because we lost him that morning. *I* could not plan that! It is something I had a hard time comprehending at first, but something I continue to cling to and grasp more fully. Also, our lives began again in a new way. And then there was that pesky thing called grief.

I remember not long afterwards, I was talking to the child life person from the clinic and she was telling me how parents who’ve lost children will say things like “it’s been one year, or it’s been five years and I still….” I wasn’t even thinking that far down the road at that time and yet here we sit 8 years later.

So… back to my original question. We are well. Or fine, or good, or whatever the correct term is. We are also happy. Yes there are days, moments, little episodes that take my breath away and pierce my heart. We experienced them when we went to Disney World. There were little boys evvvverywhere. Several of whom did funny little things our little boy would have done. Sometimes that would make me smile and remember. Other times I would turn away with tears in my eyes. But those are just moments. Sometimes the moments are more prolonged. Birthdays (8/27) and anniversaries (today) are more difficult. The mind tends to want to play out the last days, moments, conversations, snapshots, feelings, experiences… one after another. Like a movie. Except I know the ending, because I was in it. Yes, those moments are hard. Those moments make me feel like my heart is going to break all over again.

But thankfully those moments don’t define me. My day to day life is not centered on grief. We are happy. We laugh. We play. We just have this other piece to our puzzle. But we all have puzzles. Some of the pieces are pretty and fun to finger and put into place and other pieces are rough around the edges and might cause pain when we have to touch them, but they make up the whole. This is something that changed me/us and is a part of who I am today. So in that way it does define me.

But it’s not the only definition of who I am. Just a piece. But this piece has changed my outlook on a lot of things, including my thoughts on eternity and on God and who He is (for the better, I might add). I am constantly amazed and humbled with all that God has done with the rough puzzle pieces. He’s given me the opportunity to walk along side other women in their grief, to share, to write notes of encouragement, and to grieve along side. And to rejoice when the morning comes.

Because it does.  Thanks for being an encouragement to me as I’ve written about and lived out the years after Bub’s passing and grieved and rejoiced along side many of you, as well.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Happy Easter

It has been amazing to be studying John while Easter approaches. Just looking at the Father’s love for us, while we were yet sinners, is truly heart stirring and humbling, to say the least.

Happy Easter, everybody. *ps. On my last post, blogger was acting weird and one of the comments went poof. I didn't delete it. : )

A short story about a broken foot.

I wrote in the Random Dozen yesterday that I broke my foot several years ago. And since several of you one of you wanted to know about that..here’s the story.

Several years ago, on Good Friday, which was also spring break, the girl and I were going to run some errands. One of them was to get cat food. It’s a prescription.. so I have to buy it at the vets. But I will tell you, she doesn’t have many hairball problems and her urinary tract is a delight.. so I guess it’s worth it. ; )

But on the particular day, as we were leaving, we had to walk across this driveway and then down a step. I totally missed the step and just kind of sat down. In EXCRUCIATING foot pain. Like..I thought I was gonna throw up, kinda pain. Her eyes were as big as ping pong balls as she watched me tell her I was fine, and then cry like a baby. Yeah.. I’m great in labor.  Even as I sat there retching and bawling, I was counting ‘six weeks from now’ in my head. I felt BAD.

We didn’t think it was broken at first (per a medical opinion), but it never healed. Finally right about the time school was letting out for the summer, I had a CT that showed it was indeed broken. I got my cast the day before the last day of school and spent the summer in a cast. Let that one sink in.. I spent the hot Texas summer in a cast.  And I didn’t wear it for the usual six weeks.

I wore it for EIGHT weeks. In the Texas summer heat.

And another thing about that cast…I was hoping for hot pink, since I think that’s kinda cool and sassy, but they only had white. I’m still bitter about that! 

And y’all, I ain’t crutches material!  They actually scared me to death every time I had to use them. I could just imagine myself falling flat on my rump or my face. Thankfully my podiatrist told me about a place I could rent a scooter. Not a Hoveround kinda scooter, but more like a backward tricycle. I could so mow you down in Target! Just sayin’.

I have never had a broken bone, so I didn’t really understand all that entails. But basic things like oh say.. taking a bath, were downright torture. I sent hubs on a mission to Target to buy me an electric razor that day!

That scooter is the only thing that got me through, lemme tell ya. 

Got my cast off in late summer. I’m not even going to ‘go there’ with how awful that leg/foot looks when it comes out of a cast. *shudder* I will say that I hopped up on the bathroom counter and gave that leg a good scrubbing as soon as I got home from the podiatrist that day! Started therapy (in a boot) and finished that in hmm October maybe.. the week before a field trip with hiking and walking. A field trip that I was going to chaperone. Yeah. But by then, I had finished PT and some core training and had some new shoes for my ‘new’ foot and actually did really good on that trip.

So I don’t wear flip flops any more. *sad face* I’m sorry but ugly Birkenstocks are NOT as pretty as cute little flip flops.  But I am thinking about trying flip flops again. After all, I’ve never missed a step, before or since. Hmm.. Should I get a cute new pair for the summer? Yay or nay?  What do you think, girls?