thank you, sweet Relief Society teacher

When I am feeling low, I ignore my blog.

I read lots of blogs and probably comment more. I write lots of posts and then promptly delete them when I realize how pitiful they sound. And then I get back to normal. Normal-ish....

And it's been one long roller coaster of a pity party over here. From poor motherhood skills, to eating habits, to loneliness, to lack of romance. You name it, and I was down on it.

And then I sat down in Relief Society on Sunday alone and listened to wonderful Ceanne ask if any of us were going through a personal trial, maybe big or maybe small but overwhelmed nonetheless. Of course the answer was yes for all of us across the room. And then she reminded me of something that I'd forgotten and pridefully ignored through my personal crisis. She shared a story about her husband and I remembered that I had not prayed about it. I'd felt sorry about it. I'd felt hopeless about it. I'd whined and complained endlessly to my sweet hubby about it, but I hadn't poured my heart out to my Heavenly Father about it and humbled myself and asked for help. Tears poured down my cheeks as I realized I knew exactly what I needed to do, and I looked around a little embarrassed that no one else was reacting that way. But that part of the lesson was for me so it was okay that I cried like a baby.

I think the lesson was on prayer. I will never truly know because my squirmy worm got noisy after that and we ended up out in the hall for the rest of the time. But I'm thankful for the snippet I got. I don't exactly know how to solve my worries and fix my problems yet. But I'm thankful for the reminder that I'm not alone in them. And the reminder that it's my own fault and I need to depend more wholly on my Heavenly Father for the strength and power to overcome them. And to get back to being me.

with cheese?

We all have stuffy noses.

M asked me this morning what was in her nose.

I said, snot and boogers.

She asked, cheeseboogers???

I needed a good laugh this morning!

Es-Cape

I told W that I needed to escape last night.

He asked if I needed to go to the grocery store by myself.

um....not quite what I meant.

Then my baby woke up with a fever.

not quite what I had in mind either.

I need an attitude adjustment!

Grandpa's on Vacation!

And you never know what that's gonna mean!

This time, he took anyone who could go to Petit Jean State Park to a cabin over night. My little family went with my parents and Sam and Grace (everyone else had to work and W and Grace came up late after work and left early the next morning for work again!)

This is our lovely cabin

and the not so bad view from the back porch!

where you could sit and read or have a snack

and if you want to take a drive down the mountain, overlook the lush rolling Arkansas countryside!

another view from the cabin (sigh!)

we took an easy walk down to overlook the waterfall. It was a lovely walk and a lovely view

LG and M were fabulous! M LOVED exploring! She had black feet from running around outside by the time we left!

Grandpa and his girls

stay tuned for part B! Boating on Lake Ouachita! (pronounced Wah-chi-tah :)

thank you thank you Mom and Dad!!

Oh my good gracious!

my BABY sister Grace is getting married! He flew all the way here last night and totally surprised her to ask her to marry him!

Isn't it pretty?? I'm excited for her but still can't believe it!!!!!!!!

my other sweet girl

The other day, she got into the pool like this. She dipped her hair in the water to be like Ariel and actually let me swim with her. (lately she just wants to stay in the shallow end and play by herself)

Then she took off the goggles and said, "I don't need these buggles anymore!"

Me: what did you call them?

M: buggles! buggles to see in the water!

I gotta get me some buggles! :)

This was W and M on the back porch last Sunday during their chat. I'm thankful for my sweet man who knew I needed a break and enjoyed a quiet chat with his daughter.

Arkansas Home Grown!

W has a coworker who lives on a farm in Hot Springs. She has brought in some yummy corn for everyone at work and last week she brought more goodies! We got scrumptious tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, and OKRA!

Do you know how to cook okra? You DO NOT boil it!! That is, unless you like eating snot.

So, in honor of our farm fresh produce, we had a good ole southern meal last weekend! W was so excited for it! LG was our handy sous chef and M wanted nothing to do with what we made! :)

To properly cook okra, well, you fry it. It's really the only way to go! Trim the ends and chop it into 1" pieces.

Beat an egg or two and coat your okra in it. Let it sit for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, get out your Arkansas farm-grown catfish and dredge it in butter, lemon juice and cajun seasonings. Then, you bake for twenty minutes so that you have SOMEthing at this meal that isn't fried!

Dredge your okra in a mixture of cornmeal, salt and pepper.

Fry it! I am not a very good frier. I usually end up with a lot of blackened fried food first. :) I was a good girl this time and used my handy dandy candy thermometer! How about that rhyming! I didn't even do that on purpose!

We also made hush puppies! We were going to make them from scratch but last minute at the store, I found a mix by Zatarain's, the maker of my Jambalaya mix that we love so dearly. So we did that and they were fabulous!!

So we enjoyed our spicy catfish, moist hush puppies, okra (then you dip it in ketchup!) and fresh sliced tomatoes! (still haven't figured out what to do with the cucumbers! :)