Things I Enjoy These Days #2
Lol at the title of this saying #2. My sense of humor is 8 years old.
One of my girl’s favorite passwords, for entering their tent forts, is “fart breath” and another is “poop butt”. I enthusiastically agree with them that there is no reason to use anything else when these are undeniably superior passwords.
A few months ago, a grown man (who shall remain unnamed for the sake of dignity) sitting in front of me at church, absolutely ripped a fart during a moment of ecclesiastical solemnity. I held it together by a thread.
“Do not even think about laughing,” I desperately rebuked myself.
But then he slo-mo leaned back, looked at the ceiling as though asking our Lord and Savior why this persecution had happened unto him, then swiftly leaned forward, beet red face held in his hands, shoulders shaking in laughter. At which point I burst into silent, hysterical tears of laughter, and could not control myself. I had to exit the service, splash water on my face in the ladies, and sternly remind myself that I am a strong 42 year old mother and if I could handle Daphne’s horrendous VBAC, I can decorously handle a church fart. Then I strode back into the service, took one look at the back of that man’s deep burgundy neck, and lost my mind again. Decorum be gone. Tears rolled down my face as I practically gargled in my effort to not shriek in laughter. Aaron kept making eye contact with me which made it so much worse (and reminded me of sitting with my favorite cousin in church, as little kids, and laughing every time we looked at each other which earned us a spanking).
My one regret is that I didn’t immediately lean forward and slap the guy on the back in hearty congratulations for giving me something to cry laugh about for two solid days afterward.
This rose is my very favorite flower in our yard. I don’t know what it’s called, and the shrub itself always looks half dead (at some point over the years, I have fully lost my green thumb). The flowers though! The picture doesn’t do it justice. I can’t capture the deep, almost black, velvety red color. It has a strong, but pretty fragrance. I usually go out and cut all the flowers to bring inside as soon as it blooms. Which adds to the half dead look of the shrub, I suppose.
This roast chicken recipe is so good! I make it about once a week with a green salad on the side. I wish the potatoes were a little more crisp, but haven’t figured that out yet.
1 whole chicken
melted butter
fresh sprigs of rosemary and thyme
salt
pepper
yellow onion
red potatoes
fresh garlic
(you can add things like carrots and celery but we do not eat that nasty food in our house)
-Dry the chicken and sprinkle liberally with salt.
-Place on a pan, lightly covered with foil, in the fridge overnight (or all day).
-Chop onion and potatoes into about 1in chunks, and chop garlic cloves in half.
-Toss veggies in melted butter and place in a roasting pan.
-Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
-Place sprigs of herbs on top of veggies.
-Brush the chicken skin with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
-Place chicken on top of veggies and herbs, breast side down.
-Cook on BROIL for 20 minutes to crisp the skin.
-Without opening the oven, reduce heat to 350 and continue roasting.
-The roasting time varies, but is typically around 1 hour or until internal temp reaches 160ish. We use a Meater so I never actually time or check it!
These book lights are amazing.
I really dislike bright, overhead light. But, conversely, I can’t see well enough in low light to read or embroider. Enter these rechargeable, clip on book lights. This is my favorite embroidery pattern shop.
I buy digital downloads and print the patterns onto Sulky Stick and Stitch Adhesive Stabilizer (sticky sheets of paper that will stick to your fabric).
I bought a pair of Darn Tuff hiking socks after roughly two years of telling myself that I will NOT spend $20-$25 on a single pair of socks. But I hate the feel of socks! I hate when they bunch and twist and the little toe line squiggles around and my shoe eats my sock until it disappears into oblivion. So I bit the bullet and bought one pair after trying several other more affordable brands. I wore them every single day for two weeks straight until I finally had to wash them. I do not care about sock hygiene. Then I stood next to the dryer waiting for them to be done so I could wear socks that day. After another month of that, I bought a second pair (I bought a different style the second time, and don’t love them as much as the first style). And the other day I bought three pairs for summer and am happy with them so far. I’m curious what they will be like in very hot weather though, since they’re wool. Reviews claim they aren’t too warm, but I have my doubts.
Childhood Magic is a free children’s craft website. I print little games and craft sheets from there every few weeks or so. They tend to have a lot of the same things over and over, but it’s fun when the kids are bored and just need a new activity.
This is the first year in a very long time that I don’t feel anxious over the impending, looming summer heat and depression. I get seasonal depression in the summer, and can barely look at the month of August on the calendar without clutching my chest in dread. I hate the heat. I hate the gnats and flies. The unrelenting sunshine. The sunburn. The skin cancer and heat stroke. Gasping for oxygen when we get in the hot car. The parched, scorched earth. The feelings of eternal thirst. The loss of hope. The death and depravity of mankind. There is no escape. Christmas will never come again.
Anyway, last year I made a serious effort to make summer fun for my kids. I made a plan for almost every weekend to include either a hike, river, lake, pool, sprinkler, ice cream, popsicles, sunscreen, bike rides, dirt, and good memories. I was half dead for all of September because of it, but it was genuinely worth it. I’m not excited exactly, but I’m sincerely looking forward to doing the same thing this summer. I may not love it for myself, but my kids eat it up and I’m excited for them. We’ve gone swimming twice (They did. I sat in the shade where the Lord is), gone thru several boxes of popsicles, have had a bunch of backyard sprinkler and kiddie pool days, and bought cheap water guns which have brought them so much joy. I just bought an ice cream maker and it will blow their little baby minds away.
Aaron’s co-worker friend is Mexican (the whitest, blue eyed Mexican of all time), and he introduced us to some new music. “Culture, guys. You need some real culture.” Our house regularly sounds like we might be Mexican ourselves now with mariachi bands on full blast. We love Christian Nodal (which I pronounce like a very white Idahoan, but Aaron pronounces with a Mexican accent like his buddy). We don’t know what the heck Christian is singing about since we no hablo espanol. But his voice is beautiful, and I love this song in particular. I 100% recommend listening to music from other cultures and in other languages because it’s beautiful and moving. Like these:
I’d include the title of this song if I knew Chinese characters.
Daphne’s little tooth gap is one of my favorite things. She has a lip and tongue tie, and when she was born, she had a “tooth gap” in her gums from the lip tie. The cutest thing. She is supposed to get a tie release sometime in the next few months (she needs myofunctional therapy first), and I’m a little worried she’ll fully loose her tooth gap as a result. We’ll be thrilled if it helps her with eating! It takes her hours to eat most meals. But I love her tooth gap so much and hate to see it go. I caught Luna taking pictures of Daphne while saying,”I need to get your tooth gap. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.” And I have never related to something so much.
I finished reading Fractal Noise the other week, and although well written (the characters are so life like to me!), the ending was wildly disappointing because it basically didn’t end. It just stopped. Not one mysterious thing was explained or finished. I consider this an affront, and would like to file a polite complaint with Christopher Paolini.
On the other hand, I also finished Beth Moore‘s memoir, All My Knotted-Up Life, and really loved it. Beth speaks candidly about the bad and hard things that happen to her throughout her entire life. Genuinely traumatic and crushing things. I admire this frankness. And somehow, even while speaking truthfully, she does not speak in bitterness toward the ones who hurt and disrespected her. I am amazed by this spirit and can only attribute it to God. I appreciate that she doesn’t hide the harsh facts of her life, no matter who it may offend, but still maintains compassion toward people who are difficult and hurtful. The one abiding constant in her life is her relationship with and love for God, and this is really what the book is about. She has a deep hunger and thirst for the things of the Lord, and I plan to get a Bible study or two of her’s to try out because of that.
I will warn, if you read the book, it has a couple scenes of child sexual abuse (not graphic). I can handle a lot of language and violence, but hearing, seeing, reading of child abuse of any sort launches me into another dimension of hyperventilation and strong feelings of seeking justice thru vigilante violence. I believe we should be aware of these horrible things, in order to understand and help the oppressed, but it’s difficult to read Beth’s story at times.
Along these lines, Canopy Village in CDA helps children in crisis situations.
Safe Passage in CDA helps families in situations of domestic and sexual violence. They are both easy to donate to. Luna loved choosing things from Canopy Village’s wishlist.
I finished To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s as gut wrenching as I remembered and Atticus is one of the most admirable fictional characters of all time. Some books, in spite of being secular fiction, set upon you with Biblical conviction and this book is one of them.
I started Emma by Jane Austen. Emma is my favorite of Austen’s books. You can have Darcy, I will take Knightly any day of the week (especially Mark Strong’s portrayal of Knightly!).
Next up on my nightstand is a biography on Jimmy Carter called The Outlier by Kai Bird. Did you know that Carter was a born again Christian and life long Sunday school teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in White Plains, GA? I have only ever heard negative things about him and didn’t know that until earlier this year. I’m fascinated by born again Christians, like Carter and Mike Pence, in the White House. It must be a hard line to balance between holding fast to one’s Christian values while not allowing Christian Nationalism to creep in and sully their testimony for Christ like so many other Christian politicians have done. I’m curious to see how/if Carter managed that. I’m four chapters in and so far admire his tenacity in holding to his morals and beliefs.
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