Crock pot cinnamon rolls and lemonade

I don't know if you watch the show New Girl, but it's my guilty pleasure. Chris doesn't really get the humor, but I spend nearly the entire episode laughing hysterically. My laughter sounds an awful lot like Woody Woodpecker, so you can understand why Chris usually leaves room when I watch the show on Hulu. Cable free since 2011 y'all! Love me some Hulu, and the money we save.
I digress.. There is an episode where one of the guys in the show named Nick Miller messes something up and he says "Nick Miller, turning lemonade into lemons since 1977". I found it hilarious!! And started using that expression way to often, until Chris finally informed me I needed a new slogan. The Lemonade one was getting old. Oh Chris. Keeping me grounded since 2009. See what I did there?! (Initiate Woody Woodpecker laugh)
Anyway, our oven broke about two wees ago, and unlike Nick Miller, I'm big into making lemons INTO lemonade. It's just my personality. I thrive when given a challenge like a broken oven (and I whine too!).

Since I make our menus out by the month, and had already grocery shopped for most of the big menu items, I had to do some fancy foot work to make sure this whole oven fiasco didn't break the bank. Now I'm not one of those girls who uses her oven as storage for her sweaters. I use our oven several times a day y'all! The first big hurtle was breakfast. I finally found a fantastic recipe for Sweet Rolls that I could make in the crock pot!!!!! We've made these three times and each time I've tinkered with the recipe just a smidge.
Here is the original recipe: http://nlkamper.blogspot.com/2013/12/overnight-crockpot-cinnamon-rolls.html?showComment=1388498862011#c3164340154805789174

And here is my recipe that I messed with just a bit:

Crockpot Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

The Dough
1 ¼ cups raw milk
¼ cup kerry gold butter
1 tsp salt
¼ cup organic sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
3.5 to 4 cups flour. 2 cups whole wheat bread flour 2ish cups of organic unbleached flour

Heat milk, butter, salt, and sugar to 120 degrees F . It's too hot if you can't stick your finger into the milk without it burning. You laugh, but this trick works! If it's too hot it will kill the yeast. Let is cool down for a few minutes if you get it too hot.
Add 2 cups of the flour and the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the warm milk mixture and egg and beat on low to medium speed for about 3 minutes. Slowly add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft and pliable dough. Continue to kneed until the dough is smooth and elastic, and does not stick to the bowl. Cover and let rest for at least 20 minutes. I let mine rest for about an hour because...something nuts came up the boys. I think Ben cut his foot with a rock in the backyard. Ick!

The Filling
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp cinnamon
3/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar
Chopped nuts or raisins

Blend the filling ingredients together. Roll out the dough into a long rectangle. Then spread the filling all over the dough. Starting from a long end, tightly roll up the dough like a jelly roll. Cut evenly into slices about 2 inches thick, and place cut side down in the greased crock. I greased the crock pot with coconut oil. Cover with the lid and put in the fridge over night.

The Next Morning
Put the crock in the "pot" and turn it on low to allow the rolls to rise. Once they rise (about 30 minutes or so) turn the crock pot to high and put a dish towel under the lid to absorb some of the moisture. Cook for about an hour (check periodically).

I did not make any icing for my boys, and instead whipped up a little grass fed butter and honey for them to put on it.

Hope you enjoy these cinnamon rolls as much as we have!! I fry up some bacon, add some dried fruit and peculator coffee and it makes for a wonderful and easy breakfast!

ALDI. Our budget.... and the screaming Banshee.

I keep meaning to write this blog post, but life has been getting in the way. I'm working on two new products for Merri Babies and it's taking up a lot of time. One requires a lot of research, and the other just requires a lot of new fabrics and a lot of time spent sewing. I am SUPER excited about both of these products however.

Alrighty, onto this blog post! Here is the run down of our grocery budget.

I try and keep groceries and household items, such as toilet paper, dish soap, body wash all to $320 a month.

That's about $160 for two weeks. Now this does NOT include our main meat such ground beef, and chicken breast. Those I buy every few months with money I've saved. I buy Zaycon Food's 40lbs of all natural chicken every season, and then about 25lbs if we can afford it, of ground beef from US Wellness Meats.
This does however, include organic whole chickens I buy from Costco, and uncured bacon I buy from either Aldi or Publix.

I'm hoping to make these post a series because there's SO much material to cover, and let's be honest, The Magic School Bus episodes only last 22 minutes y'all.

I originally would plan out our menu on a two week plan. Because I go BIG grocery shopping at Costco only once a month, but I go smaller grocery shopping every two weeks. I started to realize once a month menus work best for me. Also, I do not plan my meals for every single day. It's too much pressure for this lady. I go a little nutty if things are too organized, i'll be honest. Instead I go through our pantry and fridge, and then make out a list of meals I could make with what is on hand, and then I also make another list of what I'll need to buy if we don't have a few items in a recipe I'm making. Does that make sense? Then I just pick the meals I'd like to do based on what's going on during the week.

Here is what a basic monthly menu looks like for the Merrifield Family:

Meals for January:
Breakfast:
Smoothies
Bacon and eggs
Granola and scrambled eggs
Nutella toast with raisins
Eggs over spinach with toast
Pumpkin muffins with bacon and eggs
Cinnamon Rolls
Potato and cheese skillet with eggs
Home made Graham crackers with peanut butter and dried fruit
Baked oatmeal with scrambled eggs
Mexican baked eggs

Lunches:
Hot dogs and chips and dried fruit
Granola and bacon with organic string cheese
Peanut butter and honey sandwiches with fried potatoes
Annie's Bunnies and cheese
Left overs
Bean and cheese burritos
Dried fruit with organic beef jerky and raw milk
Grilled chicken in rice with green veggies

Dinners:
Baked chicken and spinach flautas Loaded twice baked potatoes
Pizza
Veggie fried rice Meatballs and potatoes
Oven baked chimichangas Korean Beef over rice
Black bean burgers Burrito rice bowls
Overnight chicken Home made Chicken nuggets
Tacos
Garlic Chicken over Fried rice and egg drop soup
BBQ and chicken and avocado quesadillas
Ground beef crescents
Grilled chicken with rice and veggies

Now that is a lot of info! Most of the stuff is pretty simple, and I'm telling you now it's not all healthy! but for whatever I need recipes for I make a pinterest board for recipes for each months menus. Here is my January board: http://www.pinterest.com/marymerri/january-meal-plan/

I made a big trip to Costco earlier in the month to by in bulk my basics. I thought I had saved my receipt but now I can't find it. Darn it :( But I'm going to try and give you a list of what I bought, just not the exact prices like I'll be doing with my Aldi trip. I do know that my total at Costco was $120 however.

Costco Trip:
Hebrew national hot dogs
organic peanut butter (smoothies, sandwiches)
Organic sugar
Organic Maple Syrup
Organic frozen blueberries and strawberries (these are for smoothies)
Annie's bunny and cheese (healthier version of kraft mac n cheese)
4 dozen organic cage free eggs (We go through about 2-3 dozen, a week)
Kerrygold Cheese (I think it's about 2-3 lbs of cheese. It's a lot!)
Organic spinach, for smoothies, cooking etc
10lbs sack of potatoes
4 pack of their all natural pizza crust
1 large bag of organic corn chips
1 big bag of kirklands all natural fair trade chocolate chips (cookies for the boys, add to baked oatmeal)
Large tub or organic coconut oil

I ended up spending another $20 at ALDI that following week on some staples I needed to stock up on such as rice, butter, organic fruit, and tortillas for tacos.

So far the only thing I've gotten low on from my Costco trip is eggs, cheese, and spinach. I'll be picking those up at Sam's sometime next week since Sam's is a smidge closer and offers the same options.

I was thrown a curve ball over the past week in that our oven is broken. Which means, no pizza, No oven baked chimichangas, no home made bread for sandwiches and toast, no home made graham crackers, no chicken nuggets, no baked chicken and spinach flautas..Well I could go on and on but you get the picture! So I re-arranged some of of meals and then added some creative options as well, such as crockpot cinnamon rolls. Holy cinnamon y'all. Those little guys are a DELIGHT in the crock pot. Yummy in my tummy.

Since the oven went out, I was desperate to make an Aldi trip today with the little men today. So desperate I totally forgot Christopher Robin acts like a screaming banshee the moment you sit him in the cart. Yippee. I got lots of fun looks while throwing packages of bacon into my cart while Tiny Dancer yelled his lungs out and Ben kept asking "Momma. can we go home?! And play blocks? Baby is hollarin!" . What is it about Aldi and older people giving me judgey looks? I'm sure they think I should take that screaming curly headed child out to the wood shed. But we don't have a wood shed. So....There's that.

Anyway, enough dawdling: Here is my Aldi spread that will continue me onto my January Menu:
Organic animal crackers (we usually don't buy snacks, but since the oven is out...) 2.49
2 packs of small tortillas 1.99 each (for tacos, burritos and quesadillas)
Asparagus 2.29 (for the chicken and rice bowls I'm making up for Chris's lunches for work)
Frozen peas 1.09 (for fried rice)
Broccoli 1.09 (For fried rice)
2 packages of crescents 1.39 each(my splurge! We love ground beef crescents)
Two packages of blue organic GMO free corn chips 1.69 Each (snacks, nachos with taco meat, etc)
Dried berries 2.49 (CR is obsessed with dried fruit. Will not eat fresh fruit. He's an odd one!)
2 packages Organic String Cheese 2.99 each (snacks, lunches, etc)
3 lbs of bananas 1.33 (bananas bread, smoothies, snacks)
Organic apples 4.39 (Home made apple juice, snacks)
2 packages Organic carrots 1.49 each(snacks, lunches, juicing)
Pinto beans dried 1.79 (I NEVER buy canned beans. Too expensive. I soak them in my crockpot on low over night covered in at least 2 inches of water. Use them for burritos, soups, tacos, etc)
Black beans 2.39 (Same as above)
Frozen organic blueberries 2.99 (These will either be for smoothies or the filling for my next batch of sweet rolls)
4 packages (10 slices each) of all natural uncured bacon 3.89 each (breakfast, added to salad, lunches)
2 Pineapples 1.19 each (for juicing)
Winking Owl Merlot 2.89!!!!! Tried it tonight. Love it! I'm picky about my red wine, but this one I love.
1 red and 1 orange red pepper 2.29 (sliced for a snack or to add to stir fry)
Frozen raspberries and strawberries 2.29 (for smoothies)
Onion powder .99 (Chris hates onions! And I love them. Compromise is onion powder. Welcome to marriage :)
2 packages of butter (sadly they were out of organic) 2.39 each (baking, cooking eggs, veggies, etc)

And my grand total was: 72.66

Wooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, you may be wondering why I din't buy everything that is in these recipes on my board. That's because I buy a little extra of staples in the pantry or fridge every time Aldi has stuff I used often, on sale. Also, I make a lot of basics from scratch. I make my own chicken broth. I make my own bread and hamburger buns. I don't usually buy snacks for the boys. I make them, or pop them pop corn on the stove with coconut oil and 1/2 cup of my 50lb bag of popcorn :) I'm so cool.

After Aldi I made a quick trip to Whole Foods. Yikes! If you were looking for someone today, they were probably at Whole Foods. Everybody and their Mama was there today.
I picked up two half gallons of grass milk at 4.99 each, one container of whole milk organic yogurt 3.50 (This will be my starter for yogurt in my crockpot) and some organic black strap molasses for cookies and for the boys. I add it to their raw milk (When we're not out!) for a little extra iron. My total was around $20.

Here is my grand-ish total for the month of January:

$120 Costco
$20 Aldi
$72.66 Aldi again
$20 Whole Foods
Total: 232.66

Stay tuned :) I'll keep you updated on my next wildly exciting shopping excursion with Pete and Re-Pete Merrifield!

Bloom.

A few weeks ago when Chris and I were running errands, someone said something to me that hurt my feelings. REEEEEALLY bad.
So bad, that I cried the whole drive home, and poor C didn't even bother asking if I was okay. Boy isn't stupid! I was so incredibly not okay.
And let's be honest, I haven't been OKAY since October. I'm getting there, but it's been an interesting road. This poor girl, in all honesty, had no idea what she said would make me feel like I'd been sucker punched. I seriously doubt she had any idea how my heart aches. Did I feel (in that moment) like throwing a coffee pot at this girl? You betcha. But it was not her fault, at all.
As I pondered my heartache, this girls poorly chosen words, and my stage in life, I realized I had to be honest with myself.
Honest in where I was. Honest with myself about my journey, and where I find myself lately, as a wife and mama.

So here is life lately: Life lately is crumbled corn chips in the living room. It's castile soap covering Christopher Robin's entire body-because let's face it-kid gets creative when he's bored! It's train tracks covering the circumference of the house. It's a small house..Don't get too excited. It's dirty dishes in my sink, too many toys thrown in the pool, asking myself how many days I can go without a shower before my hair looks ridiculous, it's being asked 76 1/2 times if the boys can watch Curious George, it's crayons on the wall, deep conditioning Christopher Robin's curls so they continue to look A-dorable, but most of all it's navigating real life. Big brother little brother relationships, understanding my husband's needs, standing in the parking lot of Publix with Ben, asking him if eating Christopher Robin's sprinkle cookie was very loving. It's watching some of my dearest friends continue to be pregnant, and I'm just... not. It's taking the time to tell Ben I love him, no matter many how many times he thinks it's a good idea to tee tee off the side of his bunk bed..You'd be surprised...He thinks it's a good idea every other day....I love that kid.

My parents had a cross stitch of tulips framed in Ana Eason's and my room growing up. Under the tulips were the words "bloom where you are planted".

Well, I'm planted here. This is where the Lord wants me, Among the dirty clothes and legos and heartache. And I intend to bloom. In this stage. On this journey. I'm thankful. And blessed. Even in the midst of crayon drawings on the walls.

An ode to my Mom, the ultimate educated consumer

It's no secret I'm a big fan of my Momma, Missy Flanagan. I'm blessed (or cursed? JK!) with only the best memories of her growing up. I think I may have one single memory of her yelling at me. And it was because I told Ben he was adopted..So, the yelling was probably warranted. haha!

I do my mom an extreme disservice when I answer that my interested in politics come from my Daddy. The true answer, is that my interest on a very deep level, comes from my Mom. As a stay at home Mom, you don't have time to run a phone bank out of your house to remind people to get out to vote. You can't take two toddlers around dinner time every night to knock on doors and promote your agenda or candidate. It's just not going to happen. My mom knew this, so she promoted her own conservative beliefs in her own, genius way. She became an educated consumer. She was an educated consumer before it was cool. Of course she was also making her own bread, grinding her own wheat, buying local and organic, and just all around super crunchy before that was cool also. Love that lady!

I can remember there was a running list on our fridge growing up of companies who were pro-choice who would not get her business. Companies who gave to political candidates she would not vote for. Heck,she even boycotted Disney for years due to some decisions the company made that she didn't agree with. My mom was a genius in her own way, because she knew, that she made all the basic, day to day buying decisions for our family, and she intended to make them count! My Momma fully intended to put her money where her mouth was, on a very organic level. She wanted these companies to know that she did not agree with their corporate activism, and until things changed, they would not be getting the Flanagan households grocery money. I'm sure this seems very small to you-one housewife doing her due diligence and hell-bent on making a difference. Just one. But can you imagine if hundreds of thousands of us girls did this? I'm singling out stay at home moms in this, because that's what I am, but you don't have to even be a Mom or wife at all to be an educated consumer! We research who we want to vote for in the presidential elections, why don't we do the same thing with the corporations who receive our money on a day to day level? Gas stations. Grocery Stores. Clothing companies. Think of the huge difference we could make in this country if we just educated ourselves on who is REALLY getting our money??

Lucky for you, and me, there's an app for that! It's called 2nd Vote.
Check out http://www.2ndvote.com/ Or go to this link to download it https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/2nd-vote/id593149524?mt=8.

2nd Vote is an incredible tool that rates companies based on their conservative values. The App categorizes their "scorecard" either by industries OR issues. It then allows you to vote and promise your support of these companies that share your values.

Got Christmas presents to buy? Want to support companies that actually recognize Christmas? 2nd Vote's got ya covered! Here is a list of companies compiled by 2nd Vote who recognize Christmas, and those who don't. https://www.2ndvote.com/christmas
I know what you're going to ask! Does Missy use this App? She sure does!! At first she didn't know what an App was, but she's pretty savvy these days when it comes to her iphone! Sometimes we even facetime. She's so hip!

Thanks for listening to me ramble folks! Check out this super fun app! Download it, and start making a difference.
And if you think about it, go wish Missy a Merry Christmas :) The educated consumer, before it was cool!

10 weeks was enough

I had lots of plans for this week. Monday was the Science Center with the kids and Chris to see the new Elmo exhibit. Tuesday morning was my incredible Mom's Bible Study at church. We had thought after naps on Tuesday we would take the kids to IKEA to get me some fun stuff to organized my laundry room. It was my birthday week so that's what I wanted-organized laundry! But why did I want an organized laundry room? Because I was 10 weeks pregnant with our third baby. When I'm pregnant, I thrive on projects that keep me organized. I nest all 9 months! Drives Chris nuts. On Thursday we had a fun play date to see our old neighbors and I was so excited to talk about this third pregnancy with them. Friday was my birthday! I would be 26. So blessed at 26, with three babies, a sweet husband, precious friends, and an amazing church. So very, very blessed. It had been such a season of encouragement for me over the past few months. A season filled with incredible community through our church and our sweet friends. My cup, was, and is overflowing. But at 1pm on Tuesday it all came crashing down on me. My body, gave me away. My finite body, made of clay, 26 years old, my body that was just showing signs of a third pregnancy, let me know that things were not okay. Very suddenly that afternoon, I saw signs of a miscarriage. I tried to walk into the living room to tell Chris we needed to go to the hospital, but I made it halfway before I began weeping. My precious friend Jessie (who was there to keep Ben for me when we had Christopher Robin) showed up soon at the front door with her two little guys in tow, to keep our boys while we headed to Winnie Palmer. I felt such a different wave of emotions come over me as I said good bye to the boys and headed to the hospital. Completely different feeling than when I left Ben with Jessie to bring him home a baby brother. We got in the car and I could not form sentences. My sadness had swept over me. And Chris has learned in the years we've been married, that my instincts are never wrong. He just held my hand. We parked and Chris was walking really fast to get to labor and delivery triage. I begged him to slow down. I could feel I was losing this baby with every step. I just wanted to slow down, I wasn't ready. I needed more time. We finally made it to triage, got in a room, and a doctor confirmed that our baby was gone and I was most likely experiencing a miscarriage. She held my hand as tears fell down my face, told me how sorry she was. "You don't understand" I told her. "I was made for this. I love my babies". She started to tear up and walked out so Chris and I could have some time. I curled into a ball, and felt deep, gut wrenching sobs take over my body as Chris held me. I know life, and I know death, so very well. They are both incredibly intertwined in my life. But I just wasn't ready for this loss. This sweet little life growing in me, leaving my body before it was my time for her to leave. We came home, and I walked through the miscarriage over the next few days. I've never felt such physical pain, and grief at the same time. I felt like it was happening to someone else. Surely, this wasn't my body going through this! I had two healthy babies already! Miscarriages don't happen to people like me. But they do sweet friends. They do. I cried more than I've cried in a very long time. And the truth in all of this, is that I'v felt this grief before. No, not the loss of a child from my own body, but the loss of a brother. As the waves of grief overwhelmed me as each pain hit my body, reminding me, that my sweet baby was gone, I recalled that I've felt loss before. I've felt grief. And I know this to be true even in the midst of real pain and real sadness: 10 weeks was enough. 10 weeks was what brought the Lord glory. 10 weeks seems too short. Not enough time I kept saying. I need more. More. More. More. Please. But our sweet baby was already in glory. While I was weeping in pain and begging for the miscarriage to stop, the Lord has already taken our precious baby into his arms. Our baby knew no pain. She was dancing in the arms of her Uncle Ben, before the King. 10 weeks glorified Him best. 10 weeks was enough time. I find myself very weak and feeling so empty now. I hope to take the next few weeks and months, slowly. My prayer is that we will allow ourselves the grace to grieve this sweet baby. I'll leave you with a quote from Jim Elliot: "So I put you on the altar...But what is to be done with the ashes?" Out of the ashes, beauty will rise.

Crunchy Momma

Well friends. This has been a LONG time in coming. Three years of living in Florida have made me one crunchy Momma! It really shouldn't come as a surprise to me. I was RAISED by a crunchy momma, before it was cool. My Mom made home made bread, grind-ed (ground??) her own wheat. She and Jimmy had an INCREDIBLE organic garden. We had free range chickens. Horses. She was always trying to get us to take our daily vitamins. She was "amaze-zing" as Ben says. She was super Mom before that became a thing. So really, I owe most of my crunchy ways to Mimsey. By the way, all this talking about my incredible Momma has me watching this HILARIOUS video!! I'm not kidding, I die every time I watch it. It's so southern momma! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yg05svXp98 Okay, now that you've relived my early 20's with me while watching Miranda Lambert mess up her hair... Let's get into the REAL stuff. Trust me, you don't want to wait around to hear me start gushing about Eric Church. It gets a little ridiculous. So...People are always asking me about our crazy lifestyle. No, not the children who run down the street naked with me screaming behind them. The Real Food Lifestyle. Since this is a TON of info, I'm going to break this into four blog post: This first post is introducing you to the basics of WHAT we eat. 2. WHERE we get our fod. 3.HOW we afford it. and 4.How I make the time to make all this crazy stuff. and I'll be posting recipes as well. THIS book pretty much gives you every thing you need to know about REAL food. It is amazing. And it will also blow your mind. Fat is GOOD for you?! You betcha! Raw milk?! Not gross. Downright yummy. So go buy this book if you want healthy babies, a better immune system, and you want to look and feel..nicer? Nicer is good.Trust me. Also- it's got all the science-y stuff in there that I'm too hyper to sit down and type out as to WHY we eat like this. Just read the book. It's wonderful. So without further ado; Here are the basics of the Merrifield fam diet: Grass fed beef Pastured chickens We cook in grassfed butter, coconut oil, and beef tallow or pork lord. (are you jumping out of your chair right now because I said lard?! It's a scary word I know) We drink home made kombucha (flavored with some amazing fruit combos so far. Blackberry strawberry and blueberry cherry have been so yummy! My tummy is pretty happy) iced herb tea sweetend with local raw honey and raw milk. We actually go through THREE gallons of raw milk a week. Christopher Robin has a raw milk problem. Do they have meetings for that?? I think the first step is admitting that you have a problem... I make hot chocolate with the milk for Ben and he drinks a cup every morning. SO YUMMY! We eat about 2 dozen eggs a week. Free Range y'all. Free range eggs are actually preferred over organic. We boil em', scramble em', fry em'..you get the picture! Breakfast is our big meal around here since Chris isn't home for dinner because of work. I make home made chicken broth with left over chicken, and any veggie scraps lying around. It's SO good for you. It seriously heals you! I make home made yogurt in my crockpot with raw milk. And I'm super excited to be making kefir for smoothies soon. We buy our local and organic produce from an amazing place called Market Place Deliveries. they deliver produce to our doorstep every Saturday! If you DO live in our area, I highly recomend these guys, and if you join my virtual co-op we ALL get great discounts! http://marketplacedeliveries.com/user/virtualcoop/joinuser/8f062248-bd22-4cc7-96d1-a16800390bb5 But if you don't live in Orlando, check out your local farmers market OR even craigslist! You'd be surprised what you find. Instead of snack foods, we eat A LOT or organic popcorn. I buy it in bulk and pop it on the stove in butter, bacon fat, or butter with a little sea salt. DELISH. The boys love natural peanut butter. We buy it with two ingrediants. Peanuts. and Salt. Then I mix in local raw honey. We sweeten coffee, granola, oatmeal, yogurt, hot chocolate, home made chocolate bark and chocolate syrup with Grade B Maple syrup. We LOVE grass fed cheese! Cook with it, and I cut it into cheese sticks for snacks for the men. For baked goods, I sweeten with succant. I but it in bulk from amazon. And last but not least, I make home made bread, which is soaked before I bake it. MUCH better four little bellies! I think that sums up the basics! This type of eating is wonderful for our immune systems, it keeps mine and Chris's weight at a normal range, and it's so good for our sweet babies too. Plus, what's nice about eating this way, is you don't starve! You eat when you're hungry! No diets around here. They make me wild and mean. Also, speaking of wild, sometimes when I get hungry and mean Chris says I act like the wife in this vidoe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq1CuhcDj8Y

An ode to Wilbur. And Dallas Cheerleaders...

I had GRAND plans for my first blog post after a very long hiatus. I was going to write about our Real Food lifestyle, Ben's behavioral issues and the drastic changes we've made as a family, but honestly, I have to first blog about what happened today. At the grocery story.. No I'm not kidding. I'm a stay at home Momma people! All my exciting life stuff happens at the grocery store. Or at the park y'all. I'm not 21 anymore. 25 is a whole different level of wild. Today, Chris was sick, and it was starting to rain as soon as naps were over. So I thought I'd be a nice wife, let C get a little nap in and I'd take the kids to buy uncurred bacon at Publix. I'm not even kidding. Publix is the most exciting thing. EVER. We get free cookies. We get to get out of the house. And Ben and I get to watch Christopher Robin almost hyperventilate from excitement over getting a balloon. Oh sweet, sweet Christopher Robin. Anyway, we made a little pit stop at 7-11 first to get gas. Mimsey (Momma Missy) called and we got to discuss buying a cow with her. Her one question was "Well. How much beef do y'all actually eat?!" And all I could say was "A lot. We are actually on our way to buy bacon" which lead to her asking "Well, are you buying a cow..or Wilbur?" Oh Mimsey. She's so wise. And she seems to be able to keep her edible animals straight, unlike Momma Mk over here! As soon as we got gas, got off the phone with Mimsey, and got out of the van at Publix, the heavens opened up. It started to POUR down rain. We forgot Ben's shoes (Waiting on my Mother of the Year award) so as we walked into Publix, Ben was on my back and Christopher Robin found himself clinging for dear life to my hip. Moments like that, I bet he wishes Momma was a big girl. There's not a lot to cling to these days! We found our "car" cart as Ben calls it, and made our way straight to the bacon aisle. We ain't playin' y'all. We LOVE our apple gate bacon. Right as I was searching the bacon display, a Publix employee walked up. Some young guy. I say young guy, but I think he was like 27. I just felt old at that point..because let's face it, I picked the wrong day to wear a maxi dress. It was so wet from the rain, it probably weighed more than I did at that point. The poor guy took one look at me and stammered "Um. Do you need, like a towel? Or something to dry off with?" Now before I could politely decline, Ben decided now would be a good idea to do his best impression of me on drugs. (I don't do drugs, but this is how I picture myself high on pot) and he started to laughed louder than I've eve heard him (kid's got lungs!) and point. He specifically was pointing at the poor Publix employee and laughing. Louder and louder. Oh Ben.... I guess he made the Publix guy so nervous, the guy ran away pretty quickly. Bless his heart. We walked around the rest of the store, just trying to kill some time. And I kept wondering how I could keep my maxi dress from dragging me down (these are the super serious thoughts of a Momma of two toddlers) and I kept making myself laugh, imaging tying up my dress to try and look something like a Dallas Texas Cheerleader top. The funny thing is, I feel like I walk through life with her exact expression. Maybe I need to really re-think my wardrobe. hahahaha! Just kidding... But since I was looking a like more like a drowned rat, I ended up just tying the ends up in two knots so I could walk, and hoped we didn't see anymore we knew. We walked outside just as the rain seemed to be letting up- and it happened AGAIN! The rain poured down. At this point Ben was yelling so loud about the "RAIN!!!" I couldn't hear myself think. I finally thought to look over at my second born, and he wasn't making a sound. Just hanging out. Watching his romper get more and more soaked. Sweet little guy...Love him. We got in the car, I put the key in the ignition, and wouldn't you know it, Sammy Kershaw's song (I like classic country guys! No judgement please) came on "Don't go near the water" Lemme just regale you with a few lines so you can appreciate the irony of it all: Your mama used to worry about that big muddy river She should've worried about me Cause we were sure enough gettin' our feet wet mama But we didn't go near the water Oh Sammy.. Good thing I didn't learn this lesson! My two wet babies in the back seat are proof. But, one lesson was learned: No more publix outings when it looks like potential downpour. We don't want to scare the employees anymore than usual. Or get our feet wet for that matter. That's all folks! Hopefully, we can discuss drier, and more serious topics at a later date.