What better to warm you on a chilly day than a cup of homemade soup?

I am 100% addicted to Olive Garden’s minestrone soup.

Looking for a healthy make-at-home-version, I came across this from Betty Crocker.

It is a close second.

Delicious with jalapeno cornbread, by the way (as most soups are).

I highly recommend you trying this.

We are not “big halloween people.” Never have been. I think for the most part, costumes and haunted houses go way too far.

However, I do have fond memories growing up of being able to dress up and go to the houses of our friends and family to get treats. I am a big sweet tooth, and candy is my favorite addiction within the realm of sweets. Free candy? Oh, I was SO there.

I remember almost every one of my childhood costumes. Mom and Dad would not allow scary ensembles, nor would I have ever chosen such a thing (I admit it, I am a scaredy cat). My favorites included Strawberry Shortcake (my red hair blended in perfectly with the mask’s front), Scarlet O’Hara, and Wonder Woman.

I remember carrying around my heavy-laden plastic jack-o-lantern, swinging it a little too bravely as I walked here and there. Mom and Dad surrounded me, held my hands with one hand and held flashlights in the other. When we were visiting Mom’s side of the family, I would join in with my three cousins and we’d travel along together (my aunt knew everybody on her street….literally).

Then came the fun part….getting home, shedding our sweaty costumes, and dumping out my treasures on the kitchen table. There Mom and Dad would inspect every single piece of candy, setting aside to throw away the pieces with torn paper (or those that looked otherwise “suspicious”). Then, they’d let me choose 3 or 4 to eat that night. It was too late to pig out on candy; I could have more tomorrow (which was always horrible if it was a school day and I had to wait till 3pm to eat any more!).

I remember the fall festivals at church….the weird plastic hand puppets and the plastic spider bracelets….the ring pops and the slinkies. I remember the fall festival at my elementary school in first grade….there was one game in my classroom that night that was the most fun of all, “Go Fishing.” My teacher was hiding behind a sheet hung up in the corner, and we’d throw a fishing pole line with a clothespin on the end over the sheet. A few seconds later, there was a tug or two at the line, and we would reel it back in. That was the year that “Gremlins” came out in the theaters…..I went back enough times that I had obtained the entire paperbook set of stories from the movie.

This year, Gardner will be a circus monkey. It is complete with tasseled hat and vest. I can’t believe it’s already my time to take my own child out to trick-or-treat….how time flies. I can still smell the smells, feel the feel of the air on halloween night as a kid. It truly seems like yesterday.

Gardner’s slowly feeling better….I think. His congestion is not changing, but his fever has been gone since Friday morning. I think it is just a long illness that needs to run its course.

Not to mention that his gums are bruised because his molars are starting to come in. Maybe that is what all of this is, anyway, who knows. All I know is that I have one little miserable kid who just wants to feel better. It breaks a mommy’s heart to not be able to work a miracle to make that happen instantaneously!

He is learning animal sounds now, with our help and prompting. He can also point to parts of our faces (namely the nose and eyes). His new favorite word is “P.U.!” He has learned to stand and sway/bend to music, and he points to his open palm to indicate he wants “more” of something at the dinner table.

For halloween, his grandmama so graciously crafted a handmade costume of a “circus monkey,” complete with vest and big ears. I cannot wait to post pictures.

Ken returned home late yesterday afternoon, tired, filthy, and smelling of hard work. He and his dad spent all day long harvesting sweet potatoes from his dad’s family’s farm about an hour away. Hard work, pulling up thousands of sweet potatoes with a hoe and elbow grease (the tractor tire had gone flat).

So, now we have our yearly stock of sweet potatoes ready to be stored. And now, too, comes the hard part….to see how many creative ways I can cook them! I think there are just so many times you can get excited about yet another dish of souffle or sweet potato pie. I am looking to branch out, find more inspired recipes for these orange, fleshy vegetables.

I have started my research, but I am open to any pointers to recipes on the web, or ideas from your own recipe box!

I have always been a big ER fan. I know…I know. Hyperstimulated drama/soap opera backsplash with trauma scenes on steroids. I have never observed an ER for longer than 3-4 hours, and obviously not one in the heart of Chicago. Obviously, I know that the situations on the screen are extremely exaggerated at times, but still, a well-written show. Excellent direction, great cast of characters.

I have to admit, I, with so many others, mourned the loss of Dr. Greene and abruptly took the show out of my repertoire of weekly viewed programming. I went on an emotional strike, of sorts. When Sally Field (one of my all-time favorite actresses) made a few of the episodes a couple of seasons back, I was intermittently catching a few of them. Yet this season, I don’t know what it was….I was hooked once again, completely swallowed in.

It’s like I hear so many times….it’s like a car accident that you can’t pull your eyes away from. As gory and as cheesy at it can get at times, I just can’t stop watching. It’s the small fear that I “might miss something” that keeps me scrambling back in front of the TV every Thursday night.

Last night was their sweeps week episode. OH, my. Only the second “real time” aired episode in their history….and probably their finest one thus far. The artistry….the way they blended Ray Liotta’s (the guest star) realities on the stretcher with his alcohol-induced hallucinations….I was dumbfounded, wide-eyed, and open-mouthed.

One episode a season makes me think….and makes me cry. This was it.

Ray Liotta, too….what an actor. He’s come a long way since his small role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Field of Dreams.” I watched that movie and had a little-girl-crush on him like nobody’s business. Last night, his raw, misshaven persona made it clear that he’s not that innocent anymore.

I’m still speechless. Anyone else see it? I’m curious to hear your thoughts as well.

If you are looking for a different option for your slow cooker, look no further. This recipe is comfort in a pot, and it fills your entire house with a delicious fragrance all day long. This is an old standby recipe for us….works great on days like yesterday when I am tending to other matters all day long and don’t want to bother with a complicated meal. All I had to do at the end of the day was put on a pot of steaming brown rice and steam some asparagus. Mmmm….

(….and thanks, Mom, for being the original maker of this recipe. You started a great tradition.)

Chicken in Sour Cream Sauce

1-1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. lemon pepper
6 chicken breasts
1 (10-3/4 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. dry white wine or chicken broth
1/2 lb. fresh sliced mushrooms

Combine first 4; rub over chicken. Place chicken in crock pot. In a bowl, combine soup, sour cream, and wine; stir in mushrooms. Pour over chicken. Cover; cook on low for 6-8 hours or till juices of chicken run clear. Serves 6. Thicken sauce if desired.

I am having an inspired day. Ever have one of those? I don’t know if it’s the weather….or my mood….or something I ate last night….or what. But I am inspired to greater things today. I am inspired to set to work on the things I feel I’m best at, to sharpen my skills and let my creativity soar.

I have to admit…it’s been a long time since I’ve had an inspired day. Maybe it’s partly due to the “slowing down” I’ve been doing this week. Maybe it’s something that happens to me every so often but I can never remember it happening from one time to the next. All I know is that I’m inspired.

I pray that this inspiration stays with me, doesn’t get replaced by a task list or drudgery. I pray that I would fuel the fires of creativity, not let them die out.

If anyone else is feeling inspired, here are some links I have found that might help you in your journey:

Design Creativity Exercises

Freewriting

Coffeehouse for Writers

I find it uncanny that what we discussed at home group last night was put to the test today. We talked about busyness in the American family today….being always on the run, always cleaning, always volunteering, always carpooling. Most families don’t sit long enough to rest, much less get to know each other and spend true quality time with one another.

I don’t find it a coincidence that my life was 90mph since Monday morning (cleaning, running errands ALL day long except for G’s nap times), then was brought suddenly to a halt last night. I received a call while at our home group from Mom….Gardner had a temperature of 101.

What followed was an entire 1-1/2 hours of Ken proceeding with leading the lesson, and me trying as hard as I could but not able to concentrate one bit. My mind was elsewhere….my son was sick! (You have to understand, this is only Gardner’s second fever in his entire 13 months on this planet…I was freaking out.)

Yet today as I took him to the doctor and then brought him back home to rest, I began to think of all of the items on my to-do list that wouldn’t be crossed off. Oh, man. Then it hit me. What does all of that matter? The realization of my selfishness washed over me then like a nauseating wave. The world doens’t revolve around me….nor my schedule. Who am I to think that one day of me letting go of my tasks will make our house/world/marriage/social sphere fall completely to pieces? That is egocentricity at its finest.

This period of rest, of solitude, of rejuvination is necessary. It is long overdue. It is humbling for me to admit that this is what finally caused me to slow down. I pray that it doesn’t take Gardner becoming ill to make me smell the roses from here on out. Talk about getting shaken up and turned upside down. Some of my life’s lessons are definitely learned the hard way.

So, I have taken this and made it positive. I have promised Gardner we’ll make a mini-vacation out of it. If we look forward to staying in all day and make it fun, special, and memorable, it won’t seem like such drudgery (even to the sick one!).

Oh, the lessons you learn in life….the lessons you learn as a mother. I would say “I could write a book” just from this first year alone…but that would be silly. Even with 8,043 pages written down of what God has shown me in 13 months, the book would not even be skimming the surface of what’s to come, I’m sure of it. God keeps teaching me, refining me, letting my impurities be burned off. There are chapters and chapters and VOLUMES left to be penned.

How do you need to slow down today?

^{The words of Paul in Romans 7:14-25 (from “The Message”):
14}I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself–after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. ¹⁵What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. ¹⁶So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.

¹⁷But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! ¹⁸I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. ¹⁹I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. ²⁰My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

²¹It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. ²²I truly delight in God’s commands, ²³but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

²⁴I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

²⁵The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

Gardner’s under the weather. We left him at Mom and Dad’s last night while we were at home group. Mom called me about 7:00 and said that he had a fever of over 101. I panicked! I felt terrible, too, because I had been running errands all day with him and hadn’t noticed (although I don’t think he had a fever then….I held him much of the time and kissed his face a lot, and I would have noticed he felt warm). Evidently it came on all of a sudden. He took some Tylenol and went to bed early. I was up two or three times with him in the night, helping him settle back down (he woke up and whimpered and coughed).

Of course, I was the first caller to the pediatrician this morning….the nurse said I even beat them to turning their computers on! It turns out he just has a viral thing….most likely a viral throat infection. The poor guy endured a painful ear exam, blood oxygen testing, and even a strep throat culture.

He’s back home now, more Tylenol in him and drinking Pedialyte. Dr. Hobbs didn’t prescribe an antibiotic unnecessarily, and for that, I’m grateful. I was instructed to wait an watch for a few days and call with any changes. Most of the time, these things clear up on their own. I remember well…it wasn’t THAT long ago since I was a kid and had to deal with these things!

So, our week of running errands (I was clothes and shoe shopping for him) will have to be put on hold till he’s mended. That’s okay….perhaps it’s better to stay inside and bundled up, cuddling and relaxing, staying out of the sudden cold snap we’re experiencing. I told him we’d make a mini vacation out of this.
Feel better, little man! It breaks our heart to see you not feeling your best…