Re-learning Life As I Know It

I don’t talk about certain people in my life very often, or at all, because every time I do drama rears its ugly head. No parent has a harder life than that of a step-parent. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Whatever you do, think, or say isn’t good enough for the other parent. You’re told that your opinions don’t matter. You become a living, breathing target. You’re always under scrutiny even when you don’t know it. Your online accounts are stalked. Your Twitter post venting about something gets reposted elsewhere in a high-and-mighty fashion as a poor attempt to make you look bad. You work just as hard as any other parent to care and love and provide for a child that isn’t even your own. Its easy to pop out a kid and love it immediately and unconditionally. It takes real courage and strength to open your heart up to one that you didn’t give birth to.

This is how I’ve had to live my life ever since Sean and I started dating. It was a whole different world, dating someone with a kid, that became even more complicated when Mikael moved in with us permanently. With no kids of my own I had no idea how to be a mother, let alone having to deal with all the ugly drama that came along with Sean’s ex. It was a really steep learning curve. I made mistakes. But I learned. I grew. Mikael became a huge part of my life, though it hasn’t been without its drama, its tears, or pain.

But life as I know it is changing. Mikael is moving 2 hours away and going to school where his mom lives. There’s a lot of drama around the whole thing and it’s not what Sean or I want. Its hard. And it sucks. And the whole thing is really quite ridiculous.

But that’s life, I guess. God has a plan and His reasons. And, as usual, down the road I’ll look back and see the big picture and it will all make sense. I’ll be able to look at each shift and change and see how each piece of the puzzle fit together. God is awesome like that. I used to consider things coincidences… that it just so happened that a particular item we really needed turned up just when we needed it… and for clearance/cheap/free on top of it. But it has been God all the way!  So… however this whole thing turns out… I know and trust that there’s a reason and a plan behind it.

Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (NLT)

New Project

… and it’s not even knitting related.

I had the idea, the husband got on board, and Flavor & Thyme was born. He needed a hobby of sorts to do in his free time so I’m hoping he’ll really take off with it on his own so I don’t have to keep it up all the time. The idea is that we suck at cooking dinner. Most weekdays we’re eating spaghetti or mac and cheese. We haven’t had good luck in finding recipes that we like with good flavor which has kept us eating the same ol’ crap day in and day out. And our crazy work schedule leaves us very little time together. So we’re doing this new blog and were going to make a point of cooking together once a week with a new recipe so we can find some more foods that we enjoy and can add to our weekday menu while also spending time together!

Light Reading

Some people read fiction. I read business books.

I feel a bit like Hermione Granger when I say that picked these up for a bit of ‘light reading.’

26

Alcohol + Kenny Loggins concert across the street + people = good party!

26 doesn’t feel so bad.

Onto day 2 of the 4th of July/birthday celebrations. I think I’m going to need another holiday weekend just to recover.

Jalapeño Beer Bread

I like adding things to recipes, breads especially. I like seeing how the flavors interact.  This recipe started on a whim with a Tastefully Simple beer bread package, but it’s pricey so I had to search out an alternative.

Today’s loaf was just the basic recipe with 2 jalapeños from the garden diced up. But normally when I make this I include a diced onion as well as some good shredded cheddar cheese.  Also – the recipes I’ve found call for self-rising flour, which I never have on hand. So I’ve basically modified so you can use just regular all purpose flour.  Also, also if you want just plain beer bread then obviously just skip the additions.

Jalapeño Beer Bread

3 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tbsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 12-ounce can or bottle of your beer of choice*
2 medium sized jalapeños, diced

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar thoroughly (you can sift it all together a couple of times, too). Add beer and mix well. Stir in any additions** and then pour into a 9×5 greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

* I’m not a beer fan so I use other alcoholic beverages such as Mike’s Hard Iced Tea and such.

** When adding other additions, such as onion and cheese, just kinda eyeball it and mix it in and add more if you think it needs it.

Toast

Mmmmmm. Tart cherry jam on toast for this somewhat busy yet lazy Friday morning. ♥

Fair food heaven

Funnel Cake + fresh tart cherries from the local orchard = HEAVEN to the Nth degree!

Today’s the official start of my Birthday/Holiday weekend, and I’m kicking it off properly, don’t you think? Sean brought the funnel cake home from me after he returned from taking pictures at the fair. I had picked up my 15lbs of tart, pitted cherries from Lawrence Orchards. I can’t even explain how awesome this is, and how much better it makes the funnel cake!

As I’m writing I have a batch of tart cherry jam in the canning pot. 5 jelly jars of it for later, and the ‘leftovers’ ended up being a pint and a half. I always make one jar less than what the recipe says it will make because I keep some fresh made to throw in the fridge to set up and use right away.  Usually this works fine, but this time I had a lot extra. Oh well, more for me, right?!  I think I might throw a loaf of fresh bread in the oven tonight so I can have some for breakfast.

Tomorrow’s agenda: Black Forest Macaroon Conserve and probably just canning the rest of the cherries up plain to eat with ice cream or have with cobbler later. Who knows – with 15lbs of cherries I’ve got a lot to work with!

2010 Fair, Day 1

Animals first!

Goat! ♥

Look! The cow has the state of Ohio on it! Even cows are Buckeyes fans!

Oink, Oink!

Now for the rides!

Doesn’t this just look gorgeous? I can’t believe I got this good of a shot!

Phew! I’m tired! And I didn’t even get to ride any rides!  I can’t wait to go back this week when the weather is even better and play with some more pictures! All those cute animal faces and that wonderful barnyard smell that I can’t get enough of… yep – definitely going back lots this week!

Unexpected

I feel like I did everything right. I put out signs. I put out ads. I gathered up a lot of sale-worthy items and arranged them well. Christmas items all together, fall items all together, household decor together, etc. We re-arranged some tables throughout the sale and brought more out of the garage so people knew there was a garage sale.

And it still flopped.

Sean says it was just a bad day for a sale. We had hardly anyone come shop our garage sale. We had to spend money to rent tables for our stuff, which was $30 out of our pockets. If my sister had not paid me $10 for the tables she used I would have lost money on the sale. Instead we broke even.

Breaking even isn’t bad I guess. It’s certainly not as bad as it could have been. It was just really unexpected. I had a lot of nice things to sell and marked them at good prices. I guess people just weren’t really in a buying mood this weekend.

I was debating on just boxing everything up to take to the Goodwill and be done with it, but I still have quite a few things worthy of being sold. So we sorted through the items that were left and determined what we should keep and what should donate and took a box of things to the donation center. The rest of them have been boxed up and put back into the house so we can try again in August and see what happens then. If things still don’t sell well then I guess then I’ll donate it.

Bees, please!

The stories have been around the internet. The bee population is down significantly. I didn’t think I’d notice it around our parts… but I have. And that breaks my heart

I’m normally on high-alert in the summers for bees. I’m allergic (not to the extent that I could die, but if I get stung I swell up really bad and run a fever and such), so I’m used to paying attention to them so I can avoid getting stung.  I’ve normally tried to be somewhat careful when poking around in the garden because I don’t want to disturb the ones that might be on the tomato blooms (though I always do). I’ve not had that problem, if you can call it a problem, this year.

Its still too early to tell around here of the affect of it on the garden. We have jalapenos growing like crazy and I noticed a few teeny tiny bell peppers today when I came home from work. So something is pollinating. Maybe they’re just not around when I am? I’m still worried, though.

If you have a proliferation of bees in your area, give them a little whisper for me and send them on over to Ohio!