Early morning thought processes...

Waking up at 4am was not on my list of things to do today. In any case, here I am, awake, since 4am, with my not-so-partner-in-crime, Maddi.

This isn't her right this minute...but this is what she looks like after waking up at 4am. I, however, do not. So you won't see a picture of me here.

Maddi and I aren't necessarily on speaking terms at the moment...since, you know, she woke me up at 4am without any intention of going back to sleep. So, what have we done since 4am? Well, we started out back in her bed, because trying to get her back to sleep isn't a bad idea, right? Sure. Whatever. Instead of going back to sleep I taught her about lightning. And thunder. Because that's what was going on outside her window. Every .03 seconds there would be a flash and she would gasp, "Who's dare?!" and then every 8 seconds the rumble of thunder would rattle her window and she'd exclaim, "Whassthasound?!" And that's how I found myself explaining the process of lightning and thunder to a two year old at 4am. It's also how I stumbled upon an unsettling question and the purpose of this post.

I'm sure I could google this, but what's the fun in that? I'd rather just share my 4am ramblings with you on blogger/facebook/twitter (wherever it is your finding me). So, while explaining to Maddi about Benny Franklin and his kite in the lightning storm I had an errant thought (because they come from every direction when I've only had four hours of sleep). While the lightning flashed, so did my memories about all the West Texas thunderstorms I'd experienced the majority of my life. Thunderstorm season usually correlates with softball season out there and numerous times, from the age of seven to twenty-four, I can recall having to clear the metal bleachers of fans because why? Well, no one wants their butt to fry by a freakish bolt of lightning. Why does this matter?

Well, remember it was 4am, and I'm laying in my kid's bed which is surrounded by rails. You know the kind? Their initial purpose is to keep one's child from rolling out of their bed at night because children never stop moving, even when sleeping. And they're metal-like (I don't know my alloys so I don't know what kind it is) and I had a moment--thinking back to the softball bleachers--and wondered if it's safe to be laying in my kids bed that is surrounded by metal rails when there is a lightning storm raging outside.

My face was similar to this.

Sure, this isn't one of those things I should really be worrying about. I'm sure all are completely safe from the lightning and that these measly, metal bars aren't sending out signals to the bolts of electricity surrounding the house. But, again, it was 4 am. 

And now you've been included to my morning thus far.

Super Heroic Friends

My little miss Jaxon is growing up, and yeah, it breaks my heart in a good way. A few months ago she started going to Mother's Day Out and I can hardly keep up with all the changes. She can go to the bathroom completely by herself, she picks out her own clothes to wear (mostly), and is the biggest help with her sister.

She even opens up all the contents of her lunch by herself, which is pretty amazing considering I can't open up a Lunchable without spraying crackers all over the place...or even a juice box without it coming out of the other side of the straw. Big. Stuff.

So, the other night she told me she needed to wear her Captain America t-shirt to school. When I asked why she told me that the boys would let her play if she wore it. Well, since I don't do laundry on a daily basis Captain America shirt wasn't clean. I had to do the "mommy advice" thing that sometimes doesn't make sense but it mostly does. I had said something along the lines of "well, honey, if they value your friendship, they won't care if you don't have that shirt on."

Then today happened. I was walking down the hallway on the way to chapel behind her class and Jaxon was squeezed in between a couple boys. One broke the ranks and ran up to her asking, "Hey Jaxon! When we go outside do you want to be Spiderman?!" She beamed, "YES OF COURSE!" and they continued on their merry little way.

I had a proud mom face for the rest of the day because not only did she get to play superheroes,
but she got to be her favorite one.

My granola...it's good.

Okay. I promise not to make this a cooking blog, not that anyone ever complains about a cooking blog, it's just that my last post was about my magical meatloaf and this next post is also about something edible as well. I should warn you, my husband loves this...and the ladies at work enjoyed it as well. So this is my life. They say, "yumm," and I blog about it.

So there are rules--guidelines really--to reading a recipe of mine. You must remember that I use measuring cups as a simple suggestion. When I say something like "3 cups of oatmeal," you should know that the oats are flowing over the side of said measuring cup and I'm having to use another hand to keep the extra mound of grains from falling to the ground. And if you choose to go down this path of using extra, keep in mind the rest of the ingredients need to be generous as well. Okay, we cool? We're cool.

My example of a "cup" of oatmeal. 

Ingredients.

3 cups (and then some) of large flake rolled oats
1 cup raw sliced almonds
1 cup of walnut pieces
1 cup of pecan halves
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 tsp ginger (or nutmeg...I've been using that lately. It's kind of either or around here.)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla
1ish cup of Craisins (I prefer the pomegranite flavored kind. It's delightful.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250.

1. Combine all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the Craisins. And mix that around.
2. In another smaller bowl combine honey, oil, and vanilla. You can stir that if you want, but it's kind of pointless. You'll see what I mean when you make your own.
3. Drizzle the honey mix over the granola and just mix like crazy. 
4. Spray your cookie sheet so it doesn't stick and spread it into one even layer. You can lick your finger and enjoy a taste of what is to come.

5. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour while stirring, or nudging (because you don't want it to spill over) every         

    fifteen minutes or so. The longer you leave it in the crunchier it will be. I like mine a little soft so I'm good   

    at 50 minutes. 

6. Once you take it out add the Craisins and mix that as well. Let it cool or don't, whichever. 

You can store this in just about anything. If you choose to refrigerate it, it will get hard. I hope you love it. I tend to use this in my yogurt because I don't like yogurt plain. ENJOY!!

P.S. If you noticed my alignment was off during this post, there is a simple explanation...and I'm going to just blame blogger instead of owning up to my inability to work this site.

I have a magical meatloaf.

Or so my husband says. And when a husband clarifies that one of his wife's dishes is made of magic then it must be so. So today, while sitting around the lunch table my meatloaf became a topic of discussion. At first it was the smell of it and then it was the taste of it. Now listen, meatloaf is one of those dinners that only Your Momma can make right and you'd enjoy it. I understand this because I feel the same of my mom's meatloaf, and well, my own of course. I've talked to so many people about them not liking meatloaf and sure, it doesn't sound appetizing. But it really could be. If only we could name it something else...

Since we can't, I'm here to share with you my meatloaf recipe. Also, I've noticed that when others post recipe's they do a play by play of what it's supposed to look like after each step. Thing is, I made meatloaf last night, and the chances of me doing a step by step approach tonight is slim. So this is the only picture I have for you. 

If you didn't listen to music in the 90's then you won't get it. If you get it, I hope you laughed as hard as I did...because, really, every time I look at this graph I laugh. I've laughed a lot in the last hour. 

Right. So. Back to my loaf of magic meat. It's easy but takes a time to cook. So if  you usually have dinner on the table at 6:30...well, just don't start at 6:00.

What you will need, and forgive me as I loosely recall the ingredients because I just dump things inside...but what I used last night:

1 lb of lean ground beef
1 lb of turkey breakfast sausage (these aren't specific meats. It's just what I used).
1 cup Hot Sauce (mild Pace Picante sauce is what I usually keep on hand)
1/2 cup Parmesean cheese
1 cup Oatmeal (you can use bread crumbs but I've opted those out of my diet and I use Oatmeal instead).
Parsley
An egg
Seasoned Salt
Pepper
Worcestershire sauce (did I spell that right?)
Ketchup
Mustard
Brown Sugar (yes, sir!)


Notice there are hardly any measurements and the few that are there are roughly estimated. I've been making this since high school, so I've forgotten the actualities. Bear with me. If you're making it and it looks right...then it's right. It's just meatloaf.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Then get out a glass dish of some sort (something bigger than a bread pan because the juices flow and you don't want it to make a mess. A small casserole dish will work). Spray that dish with a veggie spray of some sort and get ready to get your hands dirty. But wash them first.

Then in a big mixing bowl dump the meat and mix it together. And dump in the egg, the hot sauce, the Parmesan, the oatmeal (if you feel like it needs more then add more), season salt (add however much you think it needs), pepper (same rules apply) W sauce (about 4 or 5 squirts), and about a 1/4 cup of Parsley (this is a rough measurement and may be too much. I use the lid of the carton and it's a big carton). Then squish it all up. Squish it real good and when it's all good and mixed put it in the baking dish and form the loaf part.

Wash your hands because you won't have to touch it again. Grab that Parmesan cheese. Lightly sprinkle the top. Grab the ketchup and cover the top with zig-zag lines. You don't have to smooth it over just go from the beginning to the end. Grab the mustard and do the same. Then top it off with sprinkled brown sugar (if you need a measurement then, umm, do about three big pinches across the top?).

Bake for an hour or until it's done in the middle. Then enjoy. I like to eat it with ketchup, since I've been doing it that way since I was 2. I hope your meatloaf is as magical as mine. If you decide I need to add pictures to this post then I'll add them at a later date. Leave a comment and let me know. Also? I don't plan on ever EVER making a cook book...therefore do not judge me on my instructional skills...or lack thereof.

Sunday Sermon

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I'm a crier. Okay, so it's not so much of a shock, but since the birthing of my gremlins it's gotten worse. If an episode is staged right, an entire viewing of Grey's Anatomy will leave streaks across my face. Yesterday my husband flipped the channel to Secretariat...I watched thirty seconds, (after already seeing it in the past) and I couldn't hold the tears at bay. I had to leave the room so I wouldn't have to suffer the eye rollage from the Mister.

I even tear up at church during the middle of a song. It doesn't happen every Sunday, but when it does I just pretend no one can see me. Today, I'd made it through the awesome worship service led by our church band with no shedding of tears. I'd made it through the teachings of our pastor, who spoke beautifully about the health of our church in 2011 and about the upcoming future. He then wrapped up the service by telling us about all the baptisms we had in 2011. We had one hundred. ONE HUNDRED BAPTISMS in the year of 2011. People, THAT is a glorious number.

And I'm just going to run off on a small tangent and say that if you are ever in the Northwest Houston area and want to hang out on a Sunday morning, I'd love to have you sitting next to me. I'll even grab you a cup of coffee.

Okay, back on track. Our baptisms. They record each and every moment and share them to the congregation on Sundays. And guess what? I cry every time. I become so overwhelmed when I see people getting excited for God and I can't control myself.

So, today, when Dave said, "We put together a montage of last years baptisms to share today," a little piece of my heart jumped for joy, and another piece of my heart realized what was going to happen. I was going to be a blubbering mess.

Our worship team strummed their guitars and started singing and I told myself to stay strong. "Don't listen to the song!" I told myself, but I didn't last two dunks. I had to sit there and wipe away the tears for nearly seven minutes. It was beautiful watching each person cross their chest, hold their nose, close their eyes, and let trust fall into the hands of whoever was burying them into death and raising them to a new life.

As much as I adore watching the individual take that plunge I revel on the emotion on their face when they rise from the water. Some let loose a small and meek smile at the camera, others show serious teeth wattage. Some reach to their spouse if present and wrap loving arms around them, others reach to the person who baptized him and my ABSOLUTE favorite is when they come up smiling and it's immediately replaced with crying eyes. The realization of what has transpired etched on the person's face is what brings me down. It's beautiful and I'm so happy to be a member of a church where this moment happens often. That's what church is about, right? Bringing those closer to God?

This sign of health and growth in our church makes me smile and I will say many prayers over this next year for our congregation. I'm just ridiculously happy that this is where we are at and we get to be a part of it all. I hope you all have a blessed Sunday.

Romans 6:3-5

³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
 ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Resolutions

Welp, it's another year. Did you guys party the last night of 2011 away? Or did you sleep through all of the neighborhood fireworks? The husband and I popped fireworks with the girls early on and THAT was an experience. Once Maddi realized that picking up a hot sparkler to blow it out was a bad idea things were good. At midnight, when the little ones were asleep, husband and I ran out to the front yard and watched our neighborhood go crazy. Seriously. Who needs a New Years party when you live near these people??

We saw a firework show like none I've ever experienced. I mean, I rang in the new year in Sydney, Australia once and experienced all of that amazing action...but this was different. For at least fifteen minutes there was a constant stream of popping and flashing. Smoke everywhere. Whooping and hollering.  Someone at one point yelled out, "Our neighborhood kicks ass!!!" And it's true. Nothing screams, "Let's ring in the new year!!" like wasting away all of your Christmas bonuses on controlled explosives. Hey, we live in a working man's neighborhood and working men spend their money on fireworks. Thank goodness. It was awesome and I stood there in awe thanking God for the blessings that came in 2011 and prayed for an equally wonderful year.

Then I came inside and started making my New Years Resolutions. I have a few. The easy ones are to read more books and finish writing the one I started. And then start on another. I'm currently laughing because those are the goals I considered the easiest.

The big one, and most cliche, is to lose weight and get back into some sort of shape. I want to do this for myself...and because of the Mayan Zombie Apocalypse. Are there zombies in this 2012 theory? Or is that a complete separate disaster than John Cusack's the-world-is crumbling-beneath-my-feet theory? Either way I figure I need to be able to outrun either force. So yeah. I'm going to get into shape. Which means I'm currently on a diet. Which means please forgive any moodiness you may encounter. Which also means, please don't be polite and offer me chocolate. Or cheeseburgers. Because I don't have the best will-power to say no. I'll always say yes. And I kind of have the philosophy that it takes a village to help me diet. So yeah, no brownies. Just give me carrots. Actually, it's possible carrots aren't on my diet plan so keep those away from me as well.

Good luck to each and every one of you on this upcoming year. I pray your days be blessed with love and happiness and that you at least make it to the end of March to carry out some of your resolutions. And that you can outrun zombies.

Christmas cards!

Enjoy a little Jingle Bells, Ben Rector style. 

I know I promised 25 Days of Christmas, but let's be real. I was never going to sit down on blogger once a day to bring on the holiday season. I know you guys don't need me to make your days merry and bright...so yeah. I took a little break. Actually, I started a new book series...and I'm hooked. The only reason I'm on blogger now is because my book is on the other side of the table. And yes, I am that lazy. 

So you know what I love about the holiday season? Christmas cards. I really do. I love seeing which friend or family member is the over achiever and gets their card to me two days after Thanksgiving. I love seeing who procrastinated more than I did. Who was super creative. Who was sweet enough to hand write a card, and so on. So this year, my cards will be on time (I think) and they are cute (I dare you to say otherwise). Also, what's more fun than seeing a Christmas card? The progress it takes to catch the perfect shot.

Yeah, that's right. I've seen some pictures that are perfect. Every toddler is in fine form with a smile on their face, mom's hair is perfectly in place, and no one looks like they've had one too many cheeseburgers...

Well, I'm here to tell you that those perfect Christmas cards are never taken in one shot. There's no way. Let me tell you why...or better yet show you. Here is the Doty progression of our 2011 Christmas Card. Enjoy.

After further review of this picture I've decided that none of us were ready for the photographer to snap this photo. I'm pulling my shirt out of my fat roll (I like food, therefore I'm in need of situating my clothes every now and then). Jaxon's cheek is hanging over the letter T there. Also, Mr. Doty is having to coach the youngest on how to properly hold the letter O. Let's see how well that works out. 

Well, the name looks good, but has anyone seen my youngest...she seems to have gone missing. Also, Jaxon...where's the camera?

Oh. Hey. Lost another kid.

Every now and then a girl just has to stand up and reassess the scene. This was one of those moments for Maddi. Jaxon, that's a great smile though... 

I don't even know what's going on...

Heh. She's cross-eyed. 

Seriously, I can't even. 

After, close examination the photographer realized we may need to have a moment to fix our letters. So we told the girls they had to be sweet to the letters...

Can't get any sweeter than rubbing your cheek on it, I suppose. 

We so almost had it here...the letters are even. You can actually SEE most of our faces...but Maddi found the blank  sheet of paper more exciting than the lady holding the camera making monkey noises. Go figure. 

And while it's not "perfect," this was our winner. Maddi is in fine fashion,  Husband is looking studly in his new tie, Jaxon looks like she's done this a million times (pretty much has), and not a single piece of fabric was hidden inside any crevice of my torso. So, Merry Christmas!! Everyone, wait for your mailman to bring you our little envelope of joy.