What's For Dinner....Thursday???

I've taken a break from "What's For Dinner Wednesday's" because....uh.....I'm lazy (hey, at least I'm honest!). However, I was asked no less than 6 times this week by different people for one of my recipes, so I guess that this whole cooking thing seems to be what I'm known for. What I like about this new "title" is that people seem to think I can cook-ha! I've always thought of myself as a "baker", but nosomuch a "cook". I mean, if you need a cake, cookies, or bread (oh, I do love me some good bread), then I'm your girl (well, I've vowed to be more adventurous in the yeast breads category, but I digress....). To be called a good "cook", well, I'm flattered, but I hate to disappoint you. I'm a pretty simple girl, and lots of my food is just that-simple! What I think I'm good at making is simply easy, family friendly food that rarely has funky ingredients, because you know...I do have 4 kids!

Because it's now officially FALL, which is my second favorite season (I'm a July baby, therefore I must LOVE June, July, and August more than any other months!), I have found myself once again in soup heaven. I love soup! I love everything about soup! It's the ultimate comfort food for me, which is why most of the soups I dream about and crave also happen to have things like butter, heavy cream, cheese, and.....more cheese in them! But, today I'm going to share one of my more innocent and "less-fattening" soups with you. However, don't lose heart! If you are a girl after my own heart (which I know you are) I'll teach you how you too can add some devilishly delish garnishes to this innocent soup that will strip the purity right from it's marrow. Yes, I can be that kinda girl too.............

Spicy Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken broth (I will beat you with my broom if you use that crappy Swanson's junk in this precious soup!)
15 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
2 cans rotel tomatoes (Do not use the "mild" version)
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
juice from 2 limes
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste (Please, make me happy and use Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper)
half cup cilantro (or about 2/3 of a "bunch")
2-3 cups chicken, cooked and shredded (I use about 2 really good sized chicken breasts and cook them in the crock pot all day with some onion and rotel so that they will shred beautifully when they are cooked. I think I usually have about 3 cups)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 can of black beans

1 can of sweet corn

Toppings:
shredded cheese
tortilla chips
avocado

1. Let all ingredients (except tomatoes and chicken) boil for 10 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes and chicken and black beans.
3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Add corn and let it warm through
5. Serve with chips, cheese and avocado

*Promise me, for the love of Oscar, that you will not skip the "toppings". They MAKE this soup everything that it was meant to be. But...if you wanna be one of "those" people that is too good for back fat, cellulite, and thunder thighs, then go ahead and eat the soup without all the sin on top. I'll still talk to you, but you can't be my best friend. I'm just sayin'......

Pumpkin Patch!

You Never Let Go

*Praise God that when I find myself losing hope that my savior never lets go of me! What love! What beautiful, unending, beautiful love! I'm full of mishaps and mistakes, blunders and bruises, fear, and even hopelessness. If I'm being totally honest I'd also have to admit to not putting my whole self into my relationship with my creator. I let the trials of this life cloud my vision sometimes, but Jesus loves me in spite of whatever misgivings I posses. He holds me close to His heart.... He never lets go!

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When clouds veil sun
And disaster comes
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rise
And hope takes flight
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Ever faithful
Ever true
You I know
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go

When clouds brought rain
And disaster came
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rose
And hope had flown
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Oh, my soul
Overflows
Oh, what love, oh, what love
Oh, my soul
Fills hope
Perfect love that never lets go

Oh, what love, oh, what love
Oh, what love, oh, what love
In joy and pain
In sun and rain
You?re the same
Oh, You never let go

Mr. Scary

Yesterday Maya and I went on a "nature walk" to collect items for a preschool project. What we came up with was quite possibly the cutest little pumpkin ever! When we finished our project I asked Maya what we should name our little pumpkin man, to which she responded, "Mr. Scary"! I LOVED it! So here he is......"Mr. Scary".

Race Day!

For better or worse, I've been at this running thing now for 3 years! I started off with very little ability and almost NO endurance & I've worked my way up to two full marathons, and a small handful of half marathons. I'm not fast, and I have absolutely nothing to prove...except for that which I prove to myself. For what it's worth, I think it's peculiar that a lot of people think you have to somehow be "good" to call yourself a runner. Well, I'm probably not "good" in the eyes of most athletes, but I'll tell you what I am.....determined!

If I thought I had to be "good" to continue this whole running fiasco I would have given up by now. Can I tell you something? I DO think I'm good....good at sticking to something-ha! I've got a thousand reasons to find a new hobby, but I've stuck with this running thing and slowly, very s-l-o-w-l-y it's paying off. After taking a substantial amount of time off after the birth of my fourth child I decided to throw myself full-tilt back into the running game & I tackled my first 1/2 marathon this past Saturday. I was determined to enter the game right where I left off, which meant I was chasing a 2:10 finish time in last weekends race. Sure, that not an impressive time, but it was my best half marathon finish time & I was darn proud of it! I told myself I HAD to be able to catch another 2:10...or better...no excuses! Well, I'm happy to report that I reached a new half marathon PR with a finish time of 2:07:38!! Mama's still got it!

But....you know what was even better??? BOTH of my sisters ran the KC half with me last Saturday too! How cool is that? After the race I had a little time to reflect on how awesome it is to be able share something I love so much with my whole family. The fact that I belong to such an awesome family was not lost on me that day...nope, not lost at all! At the end of the day THAT is what really matters!



Tiffany & Tricia....I love you more than you will ever know! Thanks for a great day!

1st Birthday Party.

This was the very first time we have had a small family party for one of our kids 1st birthday's, but that's just kinda how things went this time around. To be honest, it was kinda nice to enjoy a small birthday bash this time around. I'm usually one that likes to do things "BIG", but as my family expands I find myself wanting to simplify things as much as possible...and that's just what we did for Judah's first birthday party. I'm sure will have more eventful parties in the future, so never fear!

Here are a few snapshots of the big day :-).

The Birthday Story....

Honestly, I can't remember if I posted Judah's Birth story on here when he was born....but I thought I'd post it now in celebration of his first year of life! I know, I know....his birthday was a few weeks ago, but that's just how life goes in our house! I've had my plate pretty full lately with my little bunch, so forgive me for all the "catch up posts" I'm about to do.

Enjoy! (You know....if your into birth stories and that sort of thing!)

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Judah's Birth Story

I had been dealing with non-stop BH type contractions over the weekend & when I came in for my appt on Monday (the 29th) my blood pressure was up a little (138/82) & I was feeling really sick to my stomach. During my appt I had several contractions & I told my midwife that I had been having them off and on since 4:00 am. After we listened to the heartbeat we discussed stripping my membranes again and seeing if that would start a more regular labor pattern. However, when she went to check me she exclaimed "Oh, my...you are a good 5 cm and very effaced, so I don't think I'm gonna push it and do any membrane stripping right now". Then she told me she would be willing to just send me over to the hospital that evening & break my water. From the looks of it I was slowly preparing for labor anyway, so we made the decision to just get the show on the road. I thought that I would go for another spontaneous delivery this
time, but when I found out I was already 5 cm I quickly decided otherwise-LOL!

The main reason I agreed to the AROM was because I know I have a history of very fast labors, and this time the hospital was a good 30 minutes from my home in good traffic. As luck would have it, they were doing a ton of construction on the highway & there was no quick and easy route to the hospital without a bunch of construction delays. I SO did not want to have a "side of the road baby", and the idea of being able to arrange care for my other three kids was very appealing at this point.

We decided to have me check into the hospital around 4:30 and Jeane (my midwife) would meet me over there after she was done seeing her patients at the office. This way she could stay with me the entire time and give me her full and undivided attention. I went home with orders to "rest, eat some protein, and relax"...which is the exact opposite of what I did-LOL! I called Jonathan as soon as I left my appointment & told him "we're having our baby tonight" & he said "you mean...you're in labor!" hehe! Poor guy...he kinda had a bit of panic in his voice ;-). When I told him the plan he was very happy & said "oh, my gosh...this is it!". He left work right away & even got home before me! As soon as I got home I packed my bags (yes...I had been putting this off), called my family and arranged all the babysitting details, put Maya down for her nap, wrote down a few notes about kid care related stuff, and then I took a bath and of course... shaved my legs-LOL!

Jonathan and I decided to pick the kids up from school a little early so we could tell them the big news & give them hugs and kisses before we left. Everyone at the school was so excited for us and all the teachers were giving me hugs...it was kinda cute. After that we dropped the kids off at home & headed for the hospital. Once we checked in at the hospital they put me on the monitors & I was having a few contractions here and there, but nothing too exciting. We basically just hung out and watched TV until my midwife came around at 5:30. As soon as Jeane showed up she got me transferred to a "jacuzzi room" because she knew I was not getting an epidural & she wanted me to have some sort of comfort measures. Once we got all settled in the new room she broke my water right before 6:00 pm and we decided to have me do some walking in the halls to see if that would kick start the contractions. We walked and walked, but I wasn't really having any "good" contractions, so we came back to the room and I sat on the birth ball for a little while to just relax. At 7:00 pm my mom came by to "see if I had the baby yet"...and everyone laughed! My whole family is so used to me going quickly that they were sure he had already arrived. I told my mom to go ahead and go home because I thought it was going to be a long night.

Not long after that conversation with my mom I had one contraction that hurt quite a bit & I looked at Jeane and said "Now we're getting somewhere". She asked me if I wanted her to fill the tub & at first I said "no I think I want to wait until things pick up a little before I get in the water". Not 10 minutes later I said "you can go ahead and fill up the tub...this is going fast now". So, about 7:30 I got in the tub and did a lot of my hard labor in the water, which felt wonderful!

However, I started shaking really badly (transition...fun, fun!) & the contractions were coming one right on top of the other & I wanted to get out of the tub and stand. Once I got out of the tub I started making some noise which is not normally how I deal with labor, but it was just instinctual so I went with it. Jeane asked me if we could put the monitors back on for a few minutes since it had been awhile since we listened to the baby. As I was standing up I started swaying back and forth and Jeane just rubbed my back and belly, which felt very relaxing to me.

All of the sudden I felt the urge to push & Jeane asked me how I wanted to push. She told me that the squat bar might be the best option since I had wanted to do so much standing/squatting during transition, but all I wanted to do was sit down on the bed since my legs were feeling really shaky and weak at this point.

The pushing phase was definitely the worst/hardest part of my whole labor. I have NEVER pushed so hard in all my life. I felt like I was being really loud too, but I think in reality I wasn't making near as much noise as I thought. Every time I pushed something felt "off", but I couldn't stop pushing to save my life.

At one point I involuntarily quit pushing and starting doing this quick "panting" type of breathing and I heard the nurse say "is that what I think it is"...to which Jeane did not respond! I figured the baby must not be coming out the right way because this hurt WAY more than any of my other babies, and for the life of me I could not figure out why I was pushing SO HARD! All of the sudden I found myself saying "I can't do this...I can't do this". Jeane and Jonathan just kept telling me I COULD do this & that it was almost over. Right after saying "I can't do this", I got a huge surge of energy and pushed so hard I thought my head my explode, and then all of the sudden I felt the "ring of fire" and everyone said "the head is out!". When I looked down I saw my baby looking at me! No wonder it hurt!! However, it wasn't over yet! I still pushed a few more times for the shoulders. As soon as Jeane laid him on my tummy I said "WOW....he's finally here...and he's SO BIG!".

Everyone was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over his size & saying how they couldn't believe that was inside of me. Then they took him away to weigh him and I about fainted when they announced he was 8.14 :-).

Oh, and his time of birth was 8:49...just over an hour and a half since I had told my mom that I thought it was going to be a long night-ha! They gave him right back to me, but he started doing the sad little grunting noises, and I knew from our Chandler experience that they were going to take him to the nursery to check his oxygen levels.

Sure enough, the nurse said she was worried because he sounded like he was in distress, so Jonathan followed Judah to the nursery, while my midwife stayed with me and waited so I wouldn't be left alone. About 15 minutes later Jonathan returned to the room with little Judah and announced that he was fine! I guess he quit the little grunting noises as soon as they got to the nursery. We both snuggled him and kissed him and then our midwife took a family photo for us.

It was absolutely the best feeling in the whole world to be snuggling my little guy! After all the snuggling he latched on right away and nursed for a good 40 minutes.

After we made a ton of phone calls to tell everyone Judah had arrived, Jonathan and I looked at each other and said...."I'm starving!". However, it was nearly 11:00 pm and all the nurses could come up with was crackers, PB, and sprite. So, I sent Jonathan out in search of a giant cheeseburger and fries-LOL! He returned shortly after with Wendy's, and let me tell you...that was the best cheeseburger ever!