When The World Seems Crazy

 The last week has been horrible for our country.  We all know what happened and we all know who is using it to further their own agenda.  I do not want to get political on this blog.  I will say that I'm weary.  I'm so weary of all the vitriol spewed on social media, the mainstream media, and politicians.

I'm weary, but I'm not giving up.  I'm focusing on my people.  My people. The people that God gave me to take care of.  I'm also going to continue to pray, read my bible, and be kind to everyone around me.  I will spread kindness and smiles (behind my mask...I try to have smiling eyes)  to all those I come in contact with.

I am trying to stay off social media as much as I can.  I have moved my Facebook app to the last page of my phone which is empty.  If I don't see it or it's notifications, I will not be tempted to check it.  I really don't have much to do with Twitter anyway, so I'm not about to start now.  I'm contemplating deleting both of these platforms, and only time will tell.  I am still checking my Instagram.  I always loved Instagram because it really wasn't political, until the last year or two.  Then politics also crept in there too.  I have removed or muted anyone (from either side) that has decided to be angry, share lies, or put people down.  Life is too short to be slapped with hate every time you pick up your phone.  I will keep Instagram for now, but again, nothing is written in stone.  

As for the news, I stopped watching any news about 8 years ago.  I always got what I needed from various outlets through Facebook.  Now that I'm not really on Facebook, I still have one local news app on my phone.  If anything happens that I need to know about, I'll get my information from that (which even though local, is still leaning to one side and loves to share salacious headlines).

My TV viewing is pretty limited as it is.  I either watch Hallmark or HGTV/DIY Network.  I'm sticking with that.

But there are some bright spots in this beginning of the new year.

Bible In A Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz and Ascension Press is my new favorite podcast.  I am so blessed by this podcast.  I love that he reads a section of the bible every day, prays with us, then gives an explanation of what was just read.  You do not have to listen to the podcast.  You can download the reading plan.  But I enjoy listening to Fr. Mike.

A Bowl Full Of Lemons 2021 Home Organization Challenge and The Clean Mama 2021 Quick Clean Home Reset Challenge :  I love both of these ladies.  They make cleaning easy, and enjoyable.  And believe me, if anyone needs help organizing, it's me.  I'm also enjoying tips from Go Clean Instagram Page . I can't control the dumpster fire around me, but I can control my own home.

Daily Connoisseur on YouTube.  I mentioned her in a previous post, but I really enjoy her videos.  

The App from Kira Stokes :  I'm not going to lie to you.  This app is HARD.  Especially for an out of shape, fifty one year old mom.  I'm taking it slow.  And I'm modifying it where I need to.  But when I finish a workout, I feel so accomplished.  I'm working on my muscles this year and this app will do it.

I'm also hoping to be here more this year.  I used to blog all the time.  I know the blogging community isn't the same as it was when I originally started in 2006, but I truly miss blogging.  I miss putting my thoughts down and not for likes or comments.  I just like having a place to share.  

The Best of 2020: Recipe Addition

Of all the things 2020 gave us, we seemed to get a renewed interest in cooking, gardening, and apparently making sourdough bread.  While I didn't personally make sourdough bread, I did do a lot of cooking.  The following are some of my favorite NEW recipes from 2020.

1.  Mississippi Chicken by Plain Chicken
It's just got a good flavor and is so juicy.  

2.  Sticky, Sweet, and Spicy Meatballs from Our Happy Mess
I call these sriracha meatballs.  I use gluten free panko crumbs and skip the egg to make these allergy friendly for our family.  I like to serve them over brown rice with steamed broccoli on the side.
  
3.  Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet from Budget Bytes
This is a good "bulk" meal to feed my hungry men.  It can be done cost effective and fills up their bellies.  The olives and the feta give it great flavor.  

4.  Easy Taco Mac from Maebell's Simply Easy Recipes.
Another good bulk meal.  My people love all things "taco".  This more than fits the bill and again, can be done economically.  

5.  Triple Decker Club Sandwich from Oh Sweet Basil
I'm not sure why I don't think of sandwiches for dinner more often, but I don't.  I make these to everyone's taste.  One is allergic to mayo so I leave that off for him.  Two don't like avocados so I leave those off for them and give extra avocado to the child obsessed with them.  Sandwiches can be quick and are great in the summer when it's hot out and you don't feel like cooking.

6. Fast and Easy Pesto Lasagna from Food & Wine
I used a nut free jarred Pesto sauce, gluten free lasagna noodles, and skipped the egg.  Easy and allergy friendly.

7.  Smothered Philly Cheese Cube Steak from Melissa's  Southern Style Kitchen
We bought a quarter cow last year and it came with cube steaks.  I never used cube steaks before and didn't have a clue what to do with them.  This recipe was a real crowd pleaser.  I used gluten free buns for the child with food allergies.  Just be careful if you put buns under the broiler.  They go FAST and I incinerated the first batch.

Some Extras:

8.  Pressure Cooker Beans from A Mindfull Mom
I ALWAYS forget to soak the beans.  With this recipe, you don't have to.  

9.  Teriyaki Sauce from The Genuine Table
I have a hard time finding allergy friendly teriyaki sauce.  Now I can just make my own.

10.  Sweet and Spicy Asian Coleslaw
We did garden this year.  And I got several giant cabbage.  Two children refuse to eat cabbage and one of those children has the food allergies.  I made the recipe as is, but if he liked cabbage, I would have subbed the mayo with a vegan version.  

You can find photos of most of these over on The Prayer, Grace, and Tea Instagram

I would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to all the workers of Giant Eagle Curbside and Delivery, Instacart Pick Up and Delivery, and Walmart Store Pick Up for all their hard work keeping us in food this year.  I am so grateful to you for all your hard work when I either couldn't get into the store or didn't feel safe going into the store.  My son works in the meat department of Giant Eagle so I know exactly how hard you all worked and what you had to go through.  THANK YOU!

The Best of 2020: Reading Addition

 Honestly, looking back at the year we had, you would think that I would have read more.  My goal was to read 25 books this year and I managed to read 27.  But with being quarantined for a few months, I would have expected to read more.  I'm sad that I did not.  I need to cut down on my "online time" in 2021 (Facebook, Instagram, and just random scrolling).  That is a goal of mine for the new year.  Less online time, and more reading.

One thing that the pandemic did do for me was that I got used to reading e-books.  I used to have a Kindle reader but it is so old (I think it's a first gen) that it no longer works so I had been using my phone.  I actually had a library book at home when the pandemic first hit the U.S. and we were locked down.  But the library was closed after that and no more books were being lent out.  They were, however, loaning out e-books and that became my way to keep up with my reading.  I still prefer a book in my hands and reading them on my phone can be a bit hard (I'm 51 and still don't need reading glasses, but I'm getting there), even when I increase the font size (I really wish my Kindle worked).

I also discovered audio books.  Boy was I against those.  The sacrilege!!  But I actually discovered those before quarantine.  My son had an out of town wrestling tournament that happened to be 4 hours away.  He rode with the team and I drove alone so I downloaded an audio book (again, free from the library) to keep me company.  Then I discovered that I could listen to audio books while I cleaned and it made cleaning so much more pleasant.  The 8 year old and I are currently listening to "The Little House on the Prairie" before bed each night and enjoying it immensely.  

I enjoyed most of the books I read this year.  One was just so bad that I couldn't finish it, and once again that is just something that I just don't do.  No matter how bad the book is, I will gut it out.  This particular book was so disjointed, repetitive, and just made no sense that I had to stop reading it.  It was actually making me angry.

Here is my list of the top 10 books that I read in 2020:

10.  The Little Book of Hygge:  The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking
I love the thought of Hygge.  Winters here in Ohio can be so long and dreary that the art of hygge appeals to me.  I need comfort and peace to help me get through.  I do not enjoy the snow and cold at all, but this is where I live and the older I get the more I'm trying to embrace it.  I read two other books about hygge and one was ok but used much of the information from this book (even quoting this book in every chapter) and the other one was the book I didn't finish.

9.  The Jane Austen Diet:  Austen's Secrets to Food, Health, and Incandescent Happiness by Jane Austen, Bryan Kozlowski 
This book was just a fun read.  I love cookbooks, diet books, and self help books about health.  I may not agree with or use everything in the books, but I just enjoyed reading this book and there were many useful ideas.  Plus I love all things Jane Austen, and Bryan Kozlowski's humor kept me laughing.

8.  Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic:  Lessons in Everday Elegance by Jennifer L. Scott

7.  At Home with Madame Chic:  Becoming a Connoisseur of Daily Life by Jennifer L. Scott

6.  Lessons from Madam Chic:  20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott
The three books above by Jennifer L. Scott were also very fun reads.  I am a Francophile at heart and I really love reading anything that has a French flare or talks about how the French live and eat.  I also found her You tube channel at the Daily Connoisseur and I have really been enjoying that too.

5.  The Blue Zones Kitchen:  100 Recipes to Live to 100 by Dan Buettner
The book and photos are beautifully done.  I have tried several of the recipes and they are very good and my family likes them also.  

4. The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
This book is set in WWII and centers around an all female spy ring that was deployed around Occupied Europe.  A suitcase is found in New York City and it contains numerous photos of women.  Grace Healey, the woman who found the suitcase, sets out to solve the mystery of who were these woman, and what happened to them.  

3.  The Gown by Jennifer Robson
Things are bleak in post war Europe. But the upcoming wedding of Queen Elizabeth II is one bright spot and something that all of Britain is looking forward to.  The book mostly takes place during that time period, and follows the lives of two women chosen to help embroider the Queen's gown.  It flashes back and forth between post war Britain and 2016 Toronto where a granddaughter finds some embroidery that would have been made for the Queens dress among her late grandmother's things.  The grandmother never really spoke about her life before she came to Toronto so the granddaughter sets out to solve the mystery of how the embroidery came into her grandmother's possession.  

2.  The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor
The book follows Maggie Murphy and 13 other residents from a small Irish town on their ill fated journey to America abroad the Titanic.  Maggie is among one of the few survivors from steerage and vows to never speak of what happened to her.  After her father's death, Maggie's great granddaughter Grace struggles to decide what direction her life should take, and Maggie decides to share her terrible experience aboard the Titanic.  This gives Grace a new direction and helps both women to reunite with people they had lost or thought they lost.  The book deals with disaster, survivors guilt, and the lasting repercussions of the Titanic's tragedy.  The book is based on true events and blends fact with fiction.

1.  Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
I really enjoyed this book even though it's outside of my usual reading choices. There are a few risque scenes and some racy language.  It's not for the younger crowd.  Every one of my Good Reads friends read it and it was on the best seller list forever.  Usually I shy away from books like that but my mother read it and recommended it and I had to see what the fuss was all about.  I won't give a synopsis of it here, because you can find that anywhere on line.  I will say that it is a bittersweet story.  The main character experiences so much loss that I just couldn't see how she could go on.  But she does.  And while the book is sad and my heart broke for the lead character, her strength gave me hope and made the book inspirational.  

Merry Christmas

 It's the day after Christmas and while things were certainly different this year, they were also very good and I feel so blessed.

I'm truly honored to be able to go through this life with my people.  My husband  and three boys make my life so much more than I ever thought it could be.  

Christmas Eve was different, but also a lot of the same.  We did not go to church.  Instead, we watched it on TV.  This was NOT my preferred way to attend mass, but Christmas Eve mass is usually packed with people and due to Covid, our pastor had to put a limit on those attending to 125.  We just felt that it was better and safer to stay at home and watch it on TV.  Right about the time mass started, so did a snow storm so I'm going to take that as a nod from God that we did the right thing.  We got about 15-18 inches in total.  Talk about a white Christmas!

We had our usual menu of fried calamari, smelts, and baccala, along with shrimp cocktail, stuffed shells, and various cheeses.  We watched a few Christmas movies on TV and then it was time for the eight year old to put out the milk and cookies for Santa and carrots and reindeer chow for the reindeer.

Christmas morning started around 7 am.  The 8 year old gets up VERY early every day, but we told him that he could not come out of his room until 7 am.  It worked.  Then it was chaos and craziness!  The wrapping paper was flying and months and months of buying and preparation was over in 20 minutes.  

Dinner is usually ham, but this year we had a standing rib roast.  I have never cooked a standing rib roast before and the boys, who are big meat eaters, were almost as excited for the roast beef as they were for the presents.  That's a lot of pressure for mom!  But luckily the recipe I used was fantastic and the roast came out perfect.  The boys were in heaven.  We also had au gratin potatoes, green beans, and I made a red wine au jus for the beef.  We were sufficiently stuffed, also known as fat and happy.

We did not get to see our extended family, but we did call or face time everyone.  We hope to have a social distance get together with the grand parents this week.  But family was truly missed on Christmas day.  

But I don't want to dwell on what we didn't have, because we really had so much and were so blessed. 

The Christmas Eve table

Mass on TV

Yummy cheese tray

Smelts and baccala

Calamari

Stuffed shells for mom who doesn't like fish

Putting out the reindeer chow.  You can see the snow blowing in the background

Christmas morning

It really snowed!

We even got snow on the front porch and that's rare.

Standing Rib Roast

Standing Rib Roast covered in garlic herb butter.

Finished Product

Green Beans and Au Gratin Potatoes

Red Wine Au Jus

A giant tent in my family room the day after Christmas

Four Days Until Christmas

 It's December 21 and things are hopping around here.  Cards are out, most of the presents are wrapped (but not all... I'm still working on that), I hope to start cookies today, all the food is purchased for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and all recipes are ready and accounted for.  I'd say I feel organized, but that would be a lie. Does anyone ever feel organized this close to Christmas?  If you do, God Bless You.

I've been stock piling food for Christmas for a few weeks now.  I bought anything that is frozen (fish) a few weeks ago.  I ordered the large gluten free pasta shells from Amazon around Thanksgiving (for stuffed shells Christmas Eve), I picked up most of the fresh items this past week.  Except for fruit, I think I'm all set.

The hardest thing to find this year was the baccala.  Our grocery stores didn't have it.  By chance, I happened to see on Instagram that a local Italian grocery store had some in stock.  I called on Thursday to order some, and I planned to pick it up on Friday in between some doctor appointments that we had.  I picked it up at 11:30 on Friday, along with some cheese, chocolate, and a bottle of wine for Christmas.  The place was PACKED.  Apparently they do a phenomenal take out business at lunch.  It smelled heavenly in there.  I will be back after the holidays to try some take out.  I got home and started unloading my groceries and there was no fish.  WHERE WAS THE FISH??  Apparently my items went in two bags, not one and the place was so chaotic that I didn't notice.  I called and they still had my fish.  So back I drove 20 minutes to the store get the fish for a second time.  A little old Italian lady rang up my groceries and she remembered me when I came in.  She shook her head at me, so I said "And here I thought I was being organized".  Her response was "You need to slow down, honey".  She's probably right.  (Aren't old Italian ladies always right?)


Menu:

Christmas Eve

Fish on Christmas Eve is my husbands tradition, and I don't really eat fish so I buy it and he fries it.  There's only 4 people eating fish so we do a scaled down version of the "Feast of the Seven Fishes". We have smelts, calamari, and baccala in the fryer. We also have shrimp for shrimp cocktail.  Since I don't eat fish, I usually make a pasta dish too.  The last few years it's been lasagna, but this year I thought I'd make cheese stuffed shells.  Then we usually have several different cheeses to go with it. Christmas Eve is one of my favorite celebrations of the year.  I enjoy it even more the Christmas Day.  There's just something so magical about Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day

1.  Breakfast - The last several years I've done lox and bagels for Christmas morning breakfast.  The boys love their smoked salmon.  I stick with the bagels only.  This year I've decided to add in a this slow cooker copy cat Cracker Barrel hash brown recipe .  I'm doing au gratin potatoes with dinner, so this may be too many cheesy potatoes for one day so I'm still rolling it around in my mind.  I would love to do an egg casserole, but J is allergic to eggs (wheat, rye, barley, oat, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts) so that is out.  

Speaking of allergies, I have a hard time finding bagels for him so I tried this bagel recipe from Skinny Taste yesterday and it came out great!  He really liked them.  My technique could use some work, but I'm just glad to be able to make bagels for him. Instead of the egg whites, I substituted Ener-G egg replacer and I used King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour. 

2. Dinner - Usually we have ham for Christmas, but due to Covid, my husbands company didn't have a Christmas party this year, so they are giving everyone a standing rib roast.  I have never made a standing rib roast before, so this should be interesting.  My plan is to have the rib roast, au gratin potatoes, green beans, left over fish/shells from the night before.  I'm not a big beef eater, but I'm willing to try it.  Fingers crossed that I can cook it without over cooking it.  
recipes to use:

Standing Rib Roast from Recipe Tin Eats

I've made au gratin potatoes for so many years that I don't really use a recipe, but this recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch is close to what I do.

Southern Style Green Beans from Spicy Southern Kitchen

So this is it.  These are the plans but I know that plans don't always come off without a hitch so I'm prepared to be flexible.  

I hope you are all coming along with your holiday plans and that they come off without a hitch!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

 Here we are!  Post Thanksgiving, Pre Christmas, in the midst of Advent.  It's kind of a blur.

The oldest came home from college a few weeks ago, and just finished finals yesterday.  It's such a joy to have him home, but I forgot how much he eats.  There is NO food in the house!  I think he's making up for lost time.  The cafeterias on campus were scaled back due to Covid and the food offered was not what it should have been.  

Thanksgiving was spent with just the five of us.  It was nice and it was quiet.  We enjoyed the day even though we missed the grandparents.

I turned 51 last weekend.  But we are not going to talk about that.

And Christmas is coming!  I'm pretty much done with shopping.  I have a few gift cards to get but that is it.  I haven't wrapped a thing yet.  But I'm not worried about that.  It will get done.  I have all the fixings to make cookies and treats so I'm thinking that I'll start that around December 20.  If I make them too early, they will eat them all and we'll have none on Christmas.

I'm not sure how we will be handling extended family this year.  I do not want to miss a Christmas with the grandparents but I don't want to pass them Covid either.  I pray we can find a way.  Life is too short and while we are being very careful, I don't want to miss such a major holiday with extended family.  Next year isn't guaranteed.  

The house is decorated.  It has been since the day after Thanksgiving.  I keep tweaking it, but it's all done.  I love the decorations.  Part of me wants to keep them up all year.  But then they wouldn't be special, would they?  And the youngest was able to see Santa!  A local church had a drive up, Covid friendly Santa.  Thank goodness we didn't have to miss Santa this year too.

School for the younger two boys ends next week.  One is actually going to school, while the other is virtual for now.  The high school just had too many children quarantined to keep classes in person.  

I don't want to lament about Covid.  We are all in the same boat.  But I'd like to get out of this boat please (and take all of you with me).  I know it's not done, but I am done with it.  

Did I mention that we got 2 feet of snow in a day last week? Yes we did.  The boys were off of school for 4-5 days and people were out of power from Sunday night until Thursday.  We were blessed and were only out from 5 am until 4 pm on Monday.  Nothing like getting ALL THE SNOW in one day.

And luckily the roads were clear and the zoo had power that Wednesday for our drive through the "zoo lights" night.  The lights were beautiful and it was nice to get out and do a family friendly activity together.

Halloween, The Election, and Jesus

 Halloween was a little over a week ago, and we are now moving well into November.  The election was last week (but not completely over... how very 2020).

Halloween:  It was a gorgeous night.  The weather really cooperated.  Here in Ohio it can be anywhere from 80 degrees, to snowing, to having remnants of a hurricane on Halloween.  I have seen it all and yes, the hurricane part is true even though we are nowhere near the ocean.  But this year the weather was beautiful.  We live in a fairly rural area and most of the kids in the neighborhood have aged out of trick or treating, but we still managed to get 6 kids and my 8 year old was able to go trick or treating.  We set up at the bottom of the driveway with our candy and fire pit and made sure to social distance.  It was such a gorgeous night that we sat by the fire pit well after the trick or treaters stopped coming.  It was nice to relax and enjoy the weather and each other.

Election:  I really don't want to talk too much about it other than to say that the way this country is divided scares me.  I don't know how we will ever get back to a place where we can respect other's opinions and try to work together.  Actually I do know, and it will only be by the grace of God.  I have been praying so much more lately.  And maybe that is why all this is happening.  Maybe it's to remind us of who is really important, where we should be putting our time and energy, and to remind us who is actually in control.  I feel Satan is prowling around this world and especially the USA.  

Ohio Covid update:  Well, we are having a nice surge in Covid cases.  I think we had 5,000 new cases in one day last week.  I'm afraid that it will only be a matter of time before things start shutting down again.  I just hope we don't completely shut down businesses like we did last time.  The economy will not be able to handle it.  My heart breaks for all those small businesses that are barely getting by as it is.  All I've got here is more prayer. 

Church:  We went back to church yesterday.  Not TV mass.  Not car mass.  We went back into our church and I can not tell you how that lifted my soul.  With all that has been going on, I needed to go back to church.  I NEEDED to be near Jesus.  I know He is always with me, but I needed to be near the real presence.  We felt completely safe.  We will continue to go for as long as the state allows the building to be open and I pray that if the actual church buildings close down again, that some priests will take it upon themselves to either have a mass outside (regardless of Ohio weather) or go rogue to have mass in the building anyway.  If there is one thing that I have realized that I can truly not live without, it is Jesus and my church.

Family:  The family is doing well and I am trying very hard to keep things as upbeat and as normal as possible for them.  I try to cook good, hearty meals and I am trying to keep the house as organized and picked up as possible to create peace here.  I can't control the things of this world, but I can control the state of my own home.