Guest posting: A financial fresh start

I'm guest posting over at Colleen's Mommie Daze today. She's started a neat feature called Fresh Start Mondays and I am excited to be her first guest poster!

Here is a little information about Colleen:

"I'm Colleen, the creator of Mommie Daze, a blog meant to encourage moms to have faith and remember to laugh. I'm a SAHM of two boys from West MI. I thought I was really screwing up my kids. Then I realized I'm just giving them good material for their memoirs."

My story is about a financial makeover when my ex-husband and I made the decision for me to stay home with Brady and then later, when we divorced, making ends meet until I could find another job in a tough economy in south Florida.

You can find the post here. 

Bloggers are a supportive group! Thank you!

There's a wonderful phenomenon among bloggers. We're pseudo strangers, have never met "in real life," yet we do little things to lift each other up in support. 

We give advice and answer questions on technical and content issues. We share each other's posts on Facebook and Pinterest. We collaborate on blog hops, link ups and giveaways. We interact daily and help motivate each other.

Well, as a blessed recipient of Blogger World Generosity, I get to report three additional award nominations. Bloggy awards are so fun. The recipient links back to the person who nominated them, tells a little about themselves and then points to other blogs they like. 

That's my task today! 

The first is The Liebster Award (I wonder who Liebster was?).  

This one was kindly given by Michelle at The Paper Vine. Michelle's blog is a wonderfully crafty place where you can learn so much about digital scrap booking. She even offers a class on it as well as free downloads. I am truly in awe of her creative abilities. Go check it out!

Thanks so much for this nomination, Michelle!

The next is The Sunshine Award, received by both Stephanie at Bee Tree Studios and Regina At the Lake. I'm humbled these two cool ladies sent the love my way. Thank you both. (And just this week another wonderful blogger friend, Growing Up Madison, added another Sunshine nomination! But I'll do hers separate post a bit later.)

Stephanie's blog is also very creative. Reading what she writes (as well as Michelle above) really makes me want to find time to do scrap booking. She has amazing ideas and beautiful layouts. Please take a moment to see what I mean. You won't regret it. 

And Regina just opened an Etsy store for her handmade jewelry and scarves. She creates the most beautiful things. She also blogs about weddings and homemaking and family. I have learned a lot from reading her posts.

For both, the rules are:

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger. 
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you (my nominees, you can just answer the same ones!)
4. List bloggers (one says list 10, the other 11) that you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love, usually newer or up-and-coming blogs.
5. Let all of the bloggers know that they’ve been nominated.

I'll put the nominees first, some for one award, some for the other, because I think that's most important :)

I only chose a few since I had nominated several before here and here, and because I know a lot of the blogs I follow have been nominated by other people. So I am nominating blogs I have recently come to know. All of these blogs are fun and fresh and offer something unique. 

Nominees:

Sunshine Award 

1. Joyful Thrifty Home
2. Flourishing At Home
3. Mom Body Revolution
4. Aimed at the Heart

Liebster Award

1. Kneaded Creations
2. Blessed Learners
3. Rochelle Barlow
4. The Cooking Challenged

Questions:

1. What’s your favorite meal of the day — breakfast, lunch or dinner? All of them! I get hungry A LOT, really hungry. Hubby comments on it, even, so I need them all.
 2. What’s your favorite fruit? Blackberries, I see them as a treat.
 3. When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? A poet :)
4. What quality do you find most attractive in others? Upfront, straightforward honesty.
 5. What’s your favorite sport? Soccer cuz my kiddo likes it. 
6. Gold or silver? Silver! 
7. What’s your favorite candy? A Zero candy bar and/or peanut butter M&Ms.
 8. What’s your favorite online shopping website? Amazon, hands down fav.
 9. What’s your pet peeve? When people leave shopping carts in the middle of parking spaces. ERGH.
 10. Winter, spring, summer or fall? Too tough, but probably spring because I get to plant, although fall is great because I get to harvest :)
 11. How many pairs of shoes do you have? Oh a good 12, it's Kansas so you have to have sandals for summer, boots for all kinds of winter weather, tennies for bike riding and walking and playing soccer, a few dressies and a few middle of the road for spring and fall.

11 random facts: 

1. I can make an origami bird that flaps its wings in under a minute.

2. If I ever went back to school I'd want to work with children or computers.

3. I don't want to ever go back to school as I've been to four colleges in my life. That's enough!

4. Kohl's is my favorite in-store shopping place. They have the BEST deals.

5. Chips and salsa are my favorite foods.

6. I talk to my mom several times a day most days.

7. My mom reads my blog. Hi mom! (I'm just checking to see if she's paying attention.)

8. I love "Triple D" also known as Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Super awesome show, usually lulls me to sleep.

9. I remember the moment I began to worry about the environment, the actual moment. I was fishing with my then-fiance (later ex-fiance and now husband, very confusing) about 22 years ago. We were at the spillway of a lake and I saw trash floating by and it made me sick to my stomach. I never littered again.

10. I have a strict no littering rule with my kid too!  I think a person should take care of their own mess.

11. I think dolphins are as smart as people :) Seriously, have you ever read the stories of what they can do? They also are one of the few species to recognize themselves in a mirror. Check it out. They're amazing. Here's a cool CNN video too. Side note: It is my super pet peeve if someone says a dolphin is a fish. I randomly ask Brady: "What's a dolphin?" To which he hollers back: "A mammal!"

When a bright spirit touches you

Have you ever brushed up against someone in life - during the course of your normal day - who had a burning bright spirit?

I was the lucky recipient of such a brush-up last week. In a pawn shop of all places. The person who started Underground Cafe to feed the hungry in Wichita, KS, was there receiving a donation.

This man was so full of God and life, it practically poured out of him and spilled onto everyone nearby. He told us his story in such a cheerful way with a laugh that carried through the room.

He's 65. His grandmother taught him to cook at age 12 in Louisiana. At 20, he went to Vietnam and - having been tasked with demolition work - when someone asked "Is there anyone here who can cook?" he jumped at the chance.

"I didn't know God was preparing me for this," he told my husband and I.

Well, "this" is a crazy successful ministry to feed the hungry. Every Wednesday he cooks for, at times, nearly 300 people, all done with donations and volunteer time.

"There are people who can't wait to get off work at 5 p.m. to come over and help out. I haven't had anyone volunteer to help cook though, but it's not me cooking, it's God. I don't even know each week what I'm going to make."

He told us, "When we started we fed 47 people and that was the last time it was only that many. Now it's more like 247."

This bright spirit opened the ministry one year ago. As he walked out of the store today, he bounced - the kind of bounce done by someone completely convinced and convicted of what they are doing. His spirit was infectious.

What a blessing to have known this person for just a few moments. Go on over and check out this ministry and what God is doing through it. 

Breaded prairie chicken (or chicken breast) & gravy

My hunting hubby always comes home with new things to cook. Venison, wild hog, dove. This time it was prairie chicken. They're interesting looking birds. You can check out Wikipedia's entry on them.

Anyway, I had no idea what to do with it, so went to town on Google and found this recipe. While it's technically for prairie chicken, I think you could use it for chicken or turkey breast as well. I tweaked the recipe some as usual and completely forgot about the bacon, so it is omitted here. If you want to use bacon, check the recipe above or perhaps drape it across the top while it is baking. I found it fantastic without it.

Baked Prairie (or Other) Chicken

1 prairie chicken breast, cut up (or 1 turkey breast cut up or 2 chicken breasts)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp savory, dash of thyme and basil (instead I used Head Country, or you could add garlic, Italian seasoning, whatever you like)
1/4 cup butter
I dipped the bird in milk first but you could also use egg or melted butter. Mix flour and spices, then dredge breast in seasoned flour. Brown in melted butter in a skillet. Transfer to baking dish. Cover and bake in 325 degree oven for 60 minutes or until tender.

I then made gravy to put over the top using my Mom's recipe. Scrumptious country cooking.

Turned out very tender and tasty even though prairie chicken is a dark meat.

Mom's gravy is the best!

Small Town Tuesday: Fundraiser panic

This is my weekly installment of Small Town Tuesday. If you have a small-town story (with pictures is even better! ) please send me a message at vash_ii@yahoo.com or on Facebook.

  
I had a moment of panic the other day when I was penciling something into my schedule book. I had heard our fire department was having a hog roast fundraiser over at the Catholic Church to help renovate a fire truck.

That's a good cause, I thought. And very few in a small Midwest town will miss out on a good hog roast. 

I turned to the day in October when the roast was schedule for and - horror! - it was the same day and time as our women's fellowship annual chicken noodle dinner! 

Now, in a big city this would hardly matter. There are enough people to spread around to dozens of fundraisers. When you're dealing with less than 1,000 people in town, that is not the case. This can't be, I thought! 

So, Brady and I did what we always do in a crisis, we hopped on our bikes and headed across town to see my mother-in-law! She'd know what to do!

I explained the situation to her and she said, "Oh dear. You need to call the president!" I called up this wonderful, nice lady and told her the deal too. As it turned out, another women's fellowship member - and mother of the volunteer firefighter guy (and hubby's long time friend) who had told me about the hog roast - had called her already and they rescheduled the dinner for the following weekend. 

The thing is, in a small town both of these fundraisers are crucially important. We're 10 miles from any larger town, so firefighting HAS to be done quickly and locally. 

And the chicken noodle dinner (more later this month on the traditional making of the noodles) is the women's fellowship main fundraiser each year. This year the funds will go to a church member's 15-year-old grand son who, after suffering terrible seizures, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 

Like I always say, here what we do is personal. We know who we're helping and I love that. 

So, looks like I'll be busy two weekends in October at least and full of really, really good food.

Flower to fabulous, and why I love wasps

Nature amazes me.

That God takes something so beautiful and delicate as this okra flower and turns it into something we can eat just blows my mind! That I can plant tiny seeds the size of a BB and later feed my family for months from it is stunning.

This one simple thing has transformed the way I look at wasps. I used to hate them, darn near had a panic attack every time I saw one.

But now I know the beauty that lives within those little pollinators. Now I love them. Bring on the wasps!

They - along with all their little friends the bees, dragonflies and butterflies - help make this flower into something fabulous and tasty. Thank you, you wonderful plants and you little pollinators, and thank you, God. What a truly wonderful world.

Okra flowers are so beautiful. It amazes me they go from this...

... to this. Dee-lish!

A day spent on the farm

I'm blessed to have a brother and sister-in-law with a 10 or so acre sustenance farm and - bonus! - they live only an hour or so away.

Here was a recent visit. Can you tell Brady had fun? I think farms are so good for kids. If you don't have a family member with one, do a search for farm tours in your state. A Google search for farm tours in Kansas brought all these up. It's worth a try!

Miniature donkeys, the most adorable creatures!

The goats like jelly beans!

Fighting each other for food!

Bunch of roosters.

Feeding the horses. Geez, everybody's hungry.

They did this for about 20 minutes. I'm not sure which one had more fun.

Both worn out now.

I love this. These are volunteer cantaloupes that grew out of the flower bed compost. They made the best cantaloupes!

Why my picky eater eats veggies

He takes joy in harvesting cucumbers.

It's tough when you have a picky eater. You worry they will grow up with bad eating habits. They'll just eat junk food. They'll never embrace vegetables.

And it'll be all your fault!

When Brady was young, I got a lot of judgmental comments about his picky-eater-ness. I, personally, didn't push it too hard. I think I had a feeling about it.

And, thank goodness, because little did we all know he had a terrible egg allergy that meant - until age 4 - he never knew what would make him throw up or feel nauseous.

Guess I'd be picky too. But once we discovered it, the work of overcoming his caution toward food began.

To this day he remains cautious of eating new things. He doesn't like stuff all mixed together. He wants to SEE and KNOW exactly what he's eating. He may always be that way. I think what starts early can persist throughout life.

So, we don't make it a battle. We eat mostly the same things, but sometimes in different ways. We introduce new things in a structured way.

But I have to say, if I had to pick one thing, just one thing, that has made the most difference, it would be:

our garden.

Everything we grow - okra, butternut squash, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, carrots, fresh basil - he tries because they came out of the garden. If we grow it, he'll eat it. He trusts it.

We laid in bed the other night planning what we'd grow next year, including cantaloupe. He said, "I'll bet cantaloupe we grow at home is way better than from the store, especially in our garden."

Hear that ownership? Awesome.

If you have a picky eater, consider throwing some seeds in a pot or in a little space of land next year. See what grows and how your child grows as well.

Are your children picky or open to all foods? What methods do you use to help them open up and try new things?

2 ways to use fresh pumpkin

After Halloween, pumpkins go on super sale. Prior to this year, I didn't take advantage of that but now I know there's so much you can do with fresh pumpkin!

Here are two ways I will make use of them:

Pumpkin puree

This is so versatile. It can be used in muffins, waffles, pancakes, cookies, as a substitute for egg in most recipes or instead of canned pumpkin in a pie.

Above is the 2 cups of pumpkin puree I got from my one garden pumpkin (Coming soon: My battle with squash bugs).

And here is the pie I made out of it.

I compiled several recipes online last year. The two I went by were this one and this one.

What I did this year was the steaming method. I used my rice/veggie steamer, cut the pumpkin in half, scooped out the stringy innards and seeds (but save those seeds and see below!), cut the rind off, cut them into chunks and steamed them for a good 45 minutes.

Then I checked them to make sure they were soft enough to mash, if not I added 10 more minutes, then use whatever method you prefer to puree something. I just mashed them over and over like I would mashed potatoes and that was good enough.
 

 

Roasted Seeds

My husband and I LOVE roasted pumpkin seeds. Light, crunchy, you do NOT have to peel them, just eat them shell and all when they are prepared the following way.

The recipe came out of Rachael Ray Magazine and they turn out glorious. We each got 1/2 cup of glorious seeds.

Oven-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup cleaned raw whole pumpkin seeds
1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil (I used canola)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In small saucepan, bring 4 cups of water, the seeds and 1 Tbsp salt to a boil. Summer 10 mins, then drain. Pat seeds dry between paper towels.

Toss seeds with the oil and remaining salt. At this point, I personally added some BBQ spice but you could add season salt, paprika, garlic, chili powder, cumin, Head Country, whatever your favorite spice or seasoning is. Spread in a single layer on a greased, foil-lined baking sheet. Roast until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir and roast 5 minutes more.

Raw and rinsed.

Slightly cooked.

Roasted and toasted and ready to eat!

Small Town Tuesday: Country cook-out

This is my weekly installment of Small Town Tuesday. If you have a small-town story (with pictures is even better! ) please send me a message at vash_ii@yahoo.com or on Facebook. 

Since we live in a small town, our gatherings tend to be pretty informal and I never quite know what to expect. On July 4, we all hung out up on Main Street at a building we have and watched the town go by all day long and into the night.

On Labor Day this year, we went out to our little pond north of town. We have a small camper we take out that we can plug in to use the frig and have water. And this year, thank the Lord, we have water in the pond.

Here's a glimpse into our country cookout.

We were able to make a little fire and use it to cook our wild hog link sausages and hog/deer burgers (I didn't get pictures but they tasted great!).
 

Brady was able to go on his very first john boat ride.
 

All was fun and games for about the first 20 minutes until he realized his step-grandpa was planning on hand trimming all of the little trees that had grown out in the pond when it was dry during the drought.

About this time I hear him shout from across the pond, "Mom, I'm trapped and he won't bring me back!"

This very loud complaining went on another 20 minutes before they finally came back to shore. Then he promptly flopped down for some homemade lemonade. Whew!

Here's some country cooking I did for the shin-dig, which all tasted pretty good I think. The okra and cukes were from the garden.

Garlic Parmesan pull-apart.

Stewed okra and tomatoes.

Marinated cucumbers.

Homemade potato salad.

Mostly, we had a fun and different kind of day. Gosh, wonder what Thanksgiving will bring? How do you like to spend holidays? What special things do you and your family do?

Parents as Teachers: A learning play group

I want to toss out a recommendation for an agency that made a big impact on our lives when Brady was young. It's called Parents as Teachers.

To the left is Brady as a toddler at a Parents as Teachers annual Truck Day in rural South Carolina. And below during a Halloween party playing with a friend as a baby (he's the Batman, not the Spiderman, ha!).

For us, the P.A.T. playgroups gave us structure, routine, learning opportunities, somewhere to go and a chance to be social. I was a stay-at-home mom in a suburb with no close friends or family nearby.

It was just the two of us a lot of days, so we went to two different P.A.T. play groups in our area every week and we loved it. We made friends and both learned a lot.

If you have a young child, you can find one near you by checking here. My favorite statement from their website was this:

Parents are their children's first and most influential teachers.

If you've never heard of P.A.T., here is more information on their vision and history from their website.

• To provide the information, support and encouragement parents need to help their children develop optimally during the crucial early years of life.
• The early years of a child's life are critical for optimal development and provide the foundation for success in school and in life.
• All young children and their families deserve the same opportunities to succeed, regardless of any demographic, geographic or economic considerations.
• In 1981, Missouri pioneered the concept of helping parents embrace their important role as their child’s first and best teacher.
• The concept for Parents as Teachers was developed in the 1970s when Missouri educators noted that children were beginning kindergarten with varying levels of school readiness.
• Research showed that greater parent involvement is a critical link in the child's development of learning skills, including reading and writing.
• Since 1985, Parents as Teachers has expanded to all 50 states and seven other countries.

Funny things Brady says... Pizza Pizza

So Brady came home yesterday just fired up as could be that his school was collecting Little Caesars Pizza tokens off of their boxes. I think the closest one is 30 minutes from us.

He is making a big case for us getting the pizza because it helps the school and ....

"If we get 100 tickets, our teacher will dress up like the Little Caesars guy!"

And really, who wouldn't want to see that! 

Pause.

(I can tell he's thinking hard now.)

Longer pause.

(He hates pizza.)

"But remember, you know, I'm not in it for the pizza."

How a kid's passion can fuel education

So, Star Wars has captured Brady's imagination more than anything I can remember for a long time, maybe ever.

I have mentioned previously that drawing is not Brady's favorite thing. But he drew this during church. It is the scene when the Emperor is shooting lightning at Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader turns to the good side right in that moment and saves him.

Wow, maybe that's a good thought for church. I like that he is showing emotion in the faces and even wrote a word!

He is using Star Wars in his drawings at school and in sentences. It is motivating him to do these things he's not crazy over.

He told me this the other night after taking a LOOONNNGGGG time to brush his teeth:

"I'm sorry. I got distracted and was pretending that the toothbrush was C3PO and the lid to the toothpaste was R2D2."

And here he is with a Giant Lego Star Destroyer he made chasing a Mini Lego Millennium Falcon. The top part of the destroyer is the command deck!

I am starting to realize his passion for this one thing - and who can resist an epic space battle of good vs. evil - can transform how he looks at things he doesn't even like, like drawing or reading or writing (he'd be happy if school was all math and recess).

Next up in this saga: I'm going to order those old Star Wars books I used to read and we'll read them together. If he sees that there are exciting things to read in the world, he just may change his opinion about it. 

What inspires your children? What passions do they have that could fuel their education and learning?

Success! Egg-free pumpkin pie

My success story!

So, as I've said before, Brady is HUGELY allergic to eggs. This can at times make for some challenging cooking.

There are a variety of egg substitutes, from mashed banana, potato and pumpkin, to corn starch, applesauce and oil. Different ones work better for different recipes.

Last year, I made pumpkin pie with applesauce instead of egg. Below is the resulting pumpkin-pudding-in-a-crust: 

My epic pumpkin pie fail!

For Labor Day, I tried again using the one pumpkin I successfully grew in my garden and combined a Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe and this egg-free, milk-free recipe from Kids with Food Allergies website.

And here's how it turned out:

It was beautiful and stood up perky and proud. Everyone raved about it and said it was the best pumpkin pie they'd ever eaten. I'd have to agree. It was really good, nice consistency, great flavor, nobody would know it didn't have egg.

And here is the combined recipe:

Egg-free pumpkin pie

2 cups canned pumpkin (2 cups fresh and mashed in my case)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1-1/2 cups evaporated milk
6-1/2 Tbsp corn starch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken, stirring constantly. Pour into pie crust. Bake 30 minutes or until firm. Cool on wire rack.

It's important, I think, to watch it close and bake longer if it needs it, or increase or decrease the temperature. The Libby's recipe says bake at 425 for 15 minutes and then reduce to 250 for 40 to 50 minutes. But the corn starch one has already been cooked some on the stove and doesn't have the same requirements.

It takes a little while to make sure it is baked properly, but if you have an egg allergy, it is so worth it.

When natures trusts you

Sorry about the picture quality. I have an ANCIENT phone.

But nature amazes me. It's so unpredictable. And this little guy chose to trust me. I put out my finger and he hopped on.

We shared time and space for about 2 minutes. Isn't he adorable? Look at his delicate antenna and his little feeder. He kept probing the tip of my finger to figure out what I was.

To be trusted by a fragile creature is a gift.

Rice krispie treats & free book? Double score!

I made a glorious discovery the other day. If your family likes rice krispie treats like mine does (my boys get very mopey if we run out) you can both have a treat AND get a free book.

I signed up for one already and am ordering another today.

These are on the 18-count boxes and maybe other Kelloggs products as well. You buy the box, then go to Kelloggs and enter a special code from inside the box.

I've ordered Finding the Titanic and April Fool's Surprise. They say it takes 4 to 6 weeks to get them.

Treats and a free book? Double score!

Small-town Tuesday: Afternoon bike ride

This is the first in a new series here, called:

Small-Town Tuesdays

It's my goal to include little slices of life from our less-than-1000-person town. Things are different here. Life is slower. It's quirky.

It's a unique lifestyle and I'd like to share it.

I'd also like to invite anyone living in a small town to share their own stories for future installments, either by leaving a comment here or leaving a post or message on the Facebook page.

Here's the first installment.

We ride our bikes through town a lot. Some weeks every day. And we never know who we'll see.

Most times we hit our garden down at my father-in-law's old home place, then the park, sometimes get a pop on Main Street, sometimes down to the river, and usually end up going to see my mother-in-law at the other end of town.

Mostly recently, we encountered some 4th-grade school friends, both of which Brady met his very first night in this town 2 years ago. That day the girl had said some not-so-nice things about the boy.

Brady on this recent night: "Wow, I didn't know you guys were FRIENDS!"

The boy: "We're not!"

The girl: "He's going to put that frog in the storm drain!"

Boy holds up the frog in his hand, mere feet from the drain! ACK! Swift intervention was needed! 

Me: "Oh honey, please don't do that. It'll die down there. It can't get out. It's one of God's creatures too, you know (he goes to our church, I thought that might help). Why don't you go put him in that ditch over there. I'll bet he'd love that."

That seemed to work as they headed off to the ditch.

No sooner did we break off from them, we ran into Brady's sitter's brother, also in 4th grade. Brady and this kid act like brothers themselves sometimes and argue. Then they usually make up by swapping their gaming devices, a Kindle for a DS. So boy, isn't it?

The kiddo rode up to us on his bike.

Me: "What are you up to tonight?"

Him, very serious: "I just finished my homework and I had to ride off all of that brain stuff."

As we ride away, Brady: "You know, he's WAY different at school than at home. At school he's very serious and stern. At home, he's just crazy!"

Ha! 

How strangers see special needs kids

Two stories about special needs kids have touched my heart lately. One is awful and broke my heart. The other is beautiful and gave me hope.

The first probably most people heard about, the bitter hateful letter to a Canadian grandmother of an autistic boy. The anonymous letter basically said the child was useless because he wasn't "normal." You can find the text of that letter here.

The second I heard on K-love Christian radio station the other day and it made me tear up as I drove. An anonymous stranger paid for the meal of a North Carolina family whose 8-year-old was having an enormous meltdown in the middle of a restaurant.

The person couldn't possibly have known, but the boy has a severe form of epilepsy and cannot communicate verbally and sometimes the frustration is just too much for him and he melts down. The mother has been told she shouldn't take him in public, but if you have ever had a kid who was "different" or if you know someone who does, then you know sometimes the family desperately wants to do what everyone else does and feel just a little bit normal.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. On this day, for this family, it didn't and a kind, wonderful, beautiful soul paid for their meal and wrote this message:

"God only gives special children to special people." 

It's the most wonderful pay-it-forward I've ever heard.

This is the sad dichotomy of our society. Love and beauty and kindness, next to hate, fear and imagined superiority. One family was beat down, the other built up.

How can they both exist at the same time in our world?

I will keep these stories in mind when I'm out in the world and encounter something unusual. I will remember that I shouldn't assume anything or take anything for granted; that I can't know the challenges of someone else's life; that I should seek to build up, not tear down; that I should practice understanding and graciousness because Lord knows I need it in return. 

Funny things Brady does ... sneaking Star Wars

As I mentioned last week, Brady isn't allowed to talk about Star Wars during lessons at school. But you can see above that he found a way to sneak it in.

This was an exercise on exclamations! First sentence is Super Mario related: "I got a power star!" and the second is: "We destroyed the Death Star!"

Sigh. That little guy.

Try something new Thursday: butternut squash

Because of so many years living with an undiagnosed egg allergy which basically induced nausea or vomiting, my kiddo is understandably picky.

In many ways, this is not bad. He is such a healthy eater. He likes whole food: meats, dairy, whole grain breads, potatoes, fruits and veggies. He wants to KNOW what he's eating without a lot of stuff mixed together.

His preferred sweets are straight chocolate, rice krispie treats, jello and pudding. Not the worst of the worst.

However, trying new foods is also crucial to a healthy relationship with food and eating.

To minimize fusses during the week, we have a scheduled new-thing day. And that is Try Something New Thursday.

This week it was butternut squash, the only one that actually survived my garden this year though four more big ones are now growing. Below is the recipe.

He liked it so much that, I kid you not, after he tried it, he put his hands together and said, "Dear God, please let the rest of the squashes make it."

Told me it was "DEE-liscious!" Here goes:

This recipe comes from here, though I make a few changes to it, the most major being butternut instead of acorn squash. Adjust the measurements based on how many squashes you have.

Honey Spice Butternut Squash

1 medium to large butternut squash
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
(recipe calls for ginger, but I did not use it)

In a bowl, combine honey, butter, salt and cinnamon. Cut squash in half, discard seeds. Fill the bowl end of the squash with the mixture. Take a knife and cut several holes in the long part of the squash and brush some of the mixture of it, allowing it to seep in.

Place in a greased baking pan. Cover (I used foil) and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until squash is tender. Uncover, bake 10 minutes longer. While baking, periodically lift the foil and brush the mixture from the bowl part across the long part of the squash again.

The squash will be so tender you can just scoop it out with a spoon. It's almost like eating pumpkin pie, yum, yum, yum.

Frugal tip: watch for super berry sales

Isn't that a beautiful bowl full of raspberries?

Since I've started shopping frugally, I check four grocery ads without fail every week - two local stores, Aldi and Dillons.

In this case, only two weeks after they had blueberries on sale for 99 cents a carton, Dillons had raspberries - normally $2.99 per carton - on sale for 99 cents. I bought four.

I savored them on top of my fake granola sundae. I ate them raw. They would have been great in a dessert or in yogurt. I should have bought more and frozen them (D'oh!).

So keep your eyes open for a good-for-you treat that is suddenly a little more affordable, stock up and enjoy.

A marriage: Then and now

What a difference 20 years makes, though not as much as I might have thought back when I was 20 and 40 seemed ANCIENT. And for the record, between the first photo and second photo, we spent 16 years apart, in different states. Broke up at age 23 and reunited at age 39 :)

20-ish and thought we knew it all.

40-ish and finally sure that we don't.