Cuts Like a Knife

Before you think I am going to give my rendition of a popular late 80's song...think again.

In my line of work one (this one being me) tends to cut themselves quite a bit, burning one's arms and fingers also seems to be a common pastime. And commonly with the finger cutting it cuts pretty deep and when this happens it actually hurts. Once this summer I ran my pointer finger down the side of a freshly (meaning that day, and our knife guys name is Elmer, just a side note) sharpened cleaver, it practically went down to the bone. It was horrible and scarring in more ways then one. It took me a few weeks to be able to look at this knife without gagging and a few weeks more to even touch it, and I need this knife people it chops herbs like butter and cuts through big hunks of meat in no time at all. I know what you are thinking what an interesting blog post. Wait though I promise there is good thought built in here somewhere. So I was thinking about this I was standing at my station chopping away the other day gazing at my knife magnet, glaring at the cleaver (who did nothing to me). I was pondering why this is...why I can't just go over pick up that knife and pledge to remember that it is sharp, that in all reality I will get cut again but I will be fine.

As soon as that thought came, I thought about how this can be applied to my life all around. Now I must admit I am a wall builder....people rarely hurt me twice. It is not a quality that I love about myself, it is one that I have been working on for some time but it is also a trait that has probably developed over the last 28 years of my life. Once I get hurt I it takes a while for me to get over it, as you all know I am a thinker, a ponderer and wonderer. It takes me a long time to process bad situations, conflict and what not. And some times during the processing I actually make things harder, more difficult, more awkward for those around me. Just like avoiding the cleaver, it would be much better to grab that cleaver again so that my basil can be perfectly chiffed in a timely manner instead of being bruised and battered by my chefs knife. The basil stands as a perfect example of mine or the person I am in conflict with heart. And that time I take to process builds up as a scar and sometimes festers. Its gross. I need to change this.

I would normally say I am a quick forgiver however I am reluctant to trust again right away. But maybe the two really go hand in hand. I think this a way that God is working in me right now, I know he gave me the knife illustration because I know He is with me everywhere I go.

Regardless I am going to be working on this trust bit, I am going to be praying for the trust bit. And I am totally using that cleaver again tomorrow!

The story of a kindergartener and a second grader.

That's right I am a mature mom now...what? Oh man I can't believe I am the mother of two school aged children. I have worked so hard for the last seven years to prepare them for the great big world of school and social awareness:) and the day has come that they are both in the great big world of school. Now I guess I can't be so dramatic...no one has ever described Ebenezer as big, it is smaller by design after all:)

So the morning was interesting. I got up at early...and I might add for those of you who don't know I am not a morning person...however school mornings are important. I like everyone to be able to leave the house in the morning with happy hearts and full bellies with a healthy lunch in hand and this is no job for weenies. Now Grace has always been along for the ride on school mornings but she does not need to be ready for the day by any means, basically food has been her only requirement in the past. Well this does not ring true anymore and let me tell you she went through three outfits this morning before she found the perfect one. This is hilarious to me. People say I am in for trouble with this one...believe me I know. She has always been opinionated and thats ok with me as long as she is polite and respectful about it:) So back to the morning...we had a warm breakfast...in the new dining room...I made lunches we had showers, got dressed, put our shoes on and we were out the door with 6 dozen cookies and 2 dozen muffins because I remembered that as Eagle Booster president you provide refreshments for convocation. This whole time it actually seemed fairly natural to get two ready and out the door. Until we got to the Green Barn. When Elliot started kindergarten we made it tradition to pray for him from the Green Barn until the parking lot at school. It has been a fabulous tradition and I encourage anyone who drives their little ones to school to do it. It makes any stressful morning better..I have used as a time to ask God for forgiveness for me for being impatient with my kids- which was so humbling the first time but Elliot actually thanked me for asking for forgiveness which made me cry...I will blog more about this topic later- I also pray for each kid and bless their day. So here we are in the car, I thanked God for our morning for our good nights rest and the sun in the sky and then I prayed for Elliot thanking God for him and his school and praying for his teacher as well and then naturally it was Grace's turn because, well I was dropping her off too. What I am dropping her off too? Insert big lump in my throat, wavering voice and tears flowing down my cheeks here. But we got through it and Grace received her blessing and God received His glory. And the tears subsided and we rolled into school like rock stars with Jesus in our hearts and God on the brain. Because, as I have said before, Ebenezer Christian School is the happiest place on earth!

So enough of the sap....I am sure a lot of you have skipped ahead to see my beautiful children. This year I let them pick out their own first day of school outfits, it saved on drama and increased the cheerfulness. So here it is ENJOY!

Pictures Finally...Summer Wrap Up

My card reader is the one with the attitude and Brian says I need a new one. At least I know what the problem is now. So my handy dandy tech savvy hubby uploaded all my photos onto his fancy droid and put them unto my computer....amazing is all I have to say.

Anyway here is the summer wrap up. Enjoy.


Grace and her favorite Daddy...thats what she tells him, I think its sweet!


My two crazy monkeys.


We call her brother the frog whisperer because he can tame frogs. He has been trying to train her to do the same for the last couple of summers but she shrieked everytime she touched them. This was the summer I guess...she even kissed it. I guess she had to test the prince theory. Can't blame a girl for trying.


My hard working little man. He is going to make a some girl really happy someday. Someday a long time from now that is.

Well thats it now you have seen it...was it exciting? Whats that you asked? Oh is the new room done? Why yes it is and two days before Brians self set deadline. You want to see it?


These are my favorite decoration in my entire house right now. I know some awful person donated them to the second chance after their lovely grandmother made them for them. Shame on you. But lucky me I love them and the best part was they were...wait for it...49 cents each. Yep thats right I decorated a wall for $3 smackers.


Window view.


Wall view. That picture did not cast .49 cents but I really fell in love with it so..well that's that.


I pretty much love my new room and am also pretty much sure that my fiestaware has ever felt more at home. It has a room that it matches and that is just fabulous.

So there you have it for real. My husband and many others have worked a tireless amount hours on our house projects this summer. And I will be having each and every one of you over for a big "the house is finally done...for now" party.

Why not make this a double post night.

I found this a this blog ... I found it beautiful....and I thought I would share it because I know that I am not the only one with one of these boys. One of these beautifully and perfectly made boys!

Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Sometimes it can be the most active children that get ignored. Oh, not completely ignored, they get talked about, or dealt with… What I’m saying is that they rarely get talked to. They aren’t always, but usually they are boys. These boys are sometimes good boys with lots and lots of energy. Sometimes they become trouble makers…sometimes they just get ignored by adults, hoping that their attention getting tactics will just go away if they are ignored.
These boys need us. They need their parents; they need the other adults in their lives, relatives, school teachers, Sunday school teachers, to pay attention. Yes, they may need more attention than their brothers and sisters and friends. They may need extra effort from the teachers and parents that are around them. Hear this…God, our God, our one and only powerful Lord of All…He made those hyperactive, trouble making, just can’t sit still boys. He made them perfectly and wonderfully and He put them in your life!
He didn’t put that child, or children in your life so that you could pass him off to the next person, the next teacher, the next volunteer… no, He put that child right where He needed him to be and that’s right where you are.
If you are the parent of an ‘energetic’ kid, you know how hard it can be. You know that sometimes they get so excited about the world around them, that shoes and socks keep escaping their minds…and that sometimes you have to remind that child ten times to put them on!! Even though it’s a school day and you’ve been reminding him to do that for the last 3 years! Not that I know anything about that….
You also probably have noticed that these active children have amazing minds… Minds that keep going and going and you don’t know how they keep going and going! These kids have had amazing thoughts… once in a while you can even get them to share a complete one! These kids are perfectly and wonderfully made….
It does take extra energy to teach them. They may need extra help from a teacher. They may need someone to help them organize their things every day before…and after school. They take extra effort, but our God knows they’re worth it. You might have to watch this child and wait and wait and wait for that teaching moment. You may need to teach this child while actively doing something. This child will learn eventually if you sit him in a desk and repeat, repeat, repeat, but he’ll catch on much faster and actually enjoy learning if you take the time to build something with him, or cook with him, or plant with him, or ….
I want you to remind yourself. God doesn’t make mistakes, he put this child in your arms, in your class, in your path for a reason. This child like all the others is AMAZING and WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL. He sometimes takes extra effort, but he’s worth it!

No pictures...I know.

So my camera and my computer are not communicating properly and I am not sure why but is something I am totally working on. I actually think I may need a new memory card holder thing and since I am taking two days off to be selfish (not really) I will try and find a new one of those thingy mabobs. That being said we have had a lot of fun on our days together lately and I have lots of pictures to share.

So what have we been up to you ask?

We have been to the fair, enjoyed a week at my moms laying by the pool and playing in the sun and made a lot of progress on the new room.

I also catered a wedding on Saturday that will be featured in Martha Stewart Wedding magazine next year. The bride thought it was important to call me nearly every day to remind that every detail would be photographed so every detail needed to be perfect...fabulous! I may have spent 3 of the most stressful days ever preparing for it but now I can tell you that it went off without a hitch and Martha ain't got nothin' on me:) I can't believe how much time I spent thinking about that woman last week when finally on Friday night I broke down from exhaustion and prayed about it....imagine that. During my prayer God reminded me that I needed to remember to ask Him for the strength to get through each day. So first thing Saturday morning it was Him I was thinking of not that crazy Martha lady. And in addition to this I felt at complete peace:)

Now we are in the final days of summer vacation and I have done absolutely no shopping for school. Thankfully the days I have been waiting for since mid-July are here. I am taking two days for me and will be hanging around Seattle with Sarah shopping for school and maybe a bit for myself. The trip is really for rest but I might as well get the shopping done at the same time....right?

Grace got her letter from her teacher Saturday in the mail. It described all of the wonderful things Kindergarten would hold and one of them was experiments. Not sure why, however Grace thinks this sounds like the best part:) Can't believe my tiny little bundle is now 5 and ready to school...she informed me the other day that she was very sorry but Mommy's don't get to go to kindergarten with their kids. Does it sound like she will miss me? Yeah..nope! I am sure I will cry as soon as I drop her off no more babies, no more preschoolers....I guess this will be the start of the new chapter titled School Aged Children.

Oh and next up on the crazy catering clients is a man I like to call Dino but probably not to his face....I am actually not sure what I am supposed to call him to his face...well maybe Mr. Rossi...someone should fill me in on the appropriate title because in 10 days I get to meet him.

What do you want?

I was able to sum up what I wanted in life in a hour the evening I had my first pseudo unintentional re-date with BJ. After dinner with Kristin he somehow invited himself over to my apartment, asked me what I wanted out of life, what my ten year plan was and if I wanted to date him again. I gave him long answers to the first two questions and a simple no to the last one. It is funny now but I thought it was odd in the beginning.

What I told him is what really makes me happy, because over the last few days I realize what I wanted has been given to me by the grace of God, and all I want to do now is say Thank You.

When he asked what I wanted out of life I answered with....I want to find my best friend get married make an agreement to never even mention the "d" word, and make another agreement to raise kids that can be happy because their world is happy and at the end of the night go to bed thanking God for everything I have because he is the one who has given all of those things to me.....and that was that. My answer to the 10 year plan is the same answer I would give today...whats a ten year plan...doesn't a ten minute plan sound much better?

We have been part of a Sunday School class over the summer titled Love and Respect. It addresses the whole battle of the sexes topic from a christian perspective, talking about our differences being just that differences and not as positives or negatives. The pastor talks a lot about how women need love and men need respect and how the two things react to each other in a unique cycle. That is all the explaining I will do on the subject, however I will say if you haven't had the joy of being a part of one of these classes you should do it, it has been life changing. Anywho...last weeks session I found very intriguing in a few different ways...he spent a lot of time talking about heaven and our salvation in relationship to our marriages and I suppose it could apply to most any relationship in your life actually, well I am a daydreamer...and I immediately started thinking about heaven. I must admit that heaven has become much more real to me in the past few years. I have actually experienced death in our family in many ways especially in the last year which has led me to think of it on a personal level. Not that I haven't done this before. But I have been more worried about being ready and what that entails and what it doesn't. Well the pastor from the video series asked what would you say to God? And immediately I thought, Thank You. And then not right at that moment but later I thought about why that phrase popped into my head and then I cried and then I thought of the following list.

Thank You for giving me all my hearts desires and then some. Thank You for hand delivering to me my best friend who is my greatest companion on this earth. Thank you for being ever so present that I can see you moving throughout my every waking moment. Thank You for lending me two beautiful kids that I can watch grow and see learning to love and trust you, children who are happy because we are truly happy. Thank You that I am able to be happy. Thank You that I can go to bed every night praising you for all that you do. Thank you for all that I am sure you have planned for me yet to experience. Thank you for your grace so I can continue to move forward and not look behind.

Thank You.

I don't know how it will actually be when I get there or when any of us get there but if I do get to say something, Thank You will be it!

What I want out of life now is much the same....happiness is a common theme, I could write a whole post on that topic alone. Its what I grew up wanting and its what I have........

This is my 400th Post and I plan on talking about food!

Food.Food.Food.

My typical work morning starts with rolling out of bed with pain in my hands and wrists and usually my left hip it is interesting. I, however, choose to ignore it and make my children some breakfast. Breakfast is followed by finding my grubbiest work jeans and a random t-shirt that I probably bought at the Second Chance (this is the best place to find weird kitchen t-shirts). I throw my hair in braids or a pony and on top of that goes a bandana...the purple one is my favorite but sometimes I settle on red and pray that I don't come in contact with gang members. And this is it, if I forgot to mention before that cooking all day is one of the least glamorous job in the world, you are being told now. Because by the end of the day you smell like a meatball and probably resemble one as well. Now this sounds really awful at this point I am sure but picking up the most beautiful produce in the world that still has dirt on it and does not look manufactured does not take glamor it takes love. Foodies are weird and foodies that work in kitchens are even weirder..because you can't be normal if you enjoy being in a 120 degree kitchen cooking for a couple hundred people at a time. Or if someone asks if you can cater corporate events for 500 and you actually get excited because not only is that a challenge but if you nailed it and made it happen you would have done the impossible.

Now I had someone make a comment about caterers being ultimate rockstars. Now I am not sure that the whole world sees it this way. A lot of clients treat us as hired help and a lot of their guests are the same way. But again its not about that. Its about doing what you love and food is what I love.

Recently I worked out of a clients home to cater a family party and when I arrived at their newly renovated (gutted) home I was greeted by my very own caterers kitchen (butlers pantry) who has this.??? I didn't even know they existed anymore. So there I was working in my little box making beautiful food for people who ended up being rather nice in the end. But back to my little box it even had a garbage disposal and more cupboards and drawers then I have in my entire house, it was nuts. And in that moment I felt as if I had arrived, making very good beautiful not frozen food in a pantry that was filled with everything boxed and processed. Woohoo....1 point for team healthy food awareness.

So this summer has been long it has been a challenge and its almost over. Not sure what my overall opinion is but I know that my kitchen skills and my tastes and abilities have grown immeasurable and there is a lot of excitement in store.

So that's that. I have a couple of days off this week woohoo. We are going to hang around and ride bikes and work on the new room and be thankful for all that we have....because that's what Jager's do.