It's Dark In Here.

A friend once told me "You must be Princess Lorana". For those of you not familiar with the reference princess Lorana is an "alien" in a sense or at least someone from far away who controls the weather with her emotions. 

Its gloomy outside. 

I love the rain. I absolutely Love it. But today for some reason, 

I feel more connected with the sky than I ever have in the past. 

Dark grey clouds billow above my head, Swirling and full of motion. 

Its beautiful. Talk about 50 shades of grey,  

Some spots darker than others, almost bruise like. 

I feel you sky. I feel you. 

People take you and your beauty for granted. 

People look at what you're "giving" them and curse at you. 

You don't provide enough shade, when it's hot.

You don't rain enough, plants are dying. 

You rain too much,  kids cant go outside and play. 

Those same plants are drowning.

You're clear, you're cloudy, you're partial, bright and dreary.

People have expectations of you sky. You cant make everyone happy.

No matter what you do someone will be upset. 

I feel you sky. I feel you. 

There is too much wind sky, I cant breathe. 

There isn't enough wind sky, I really cant breathe.

There is nothing else quite like you sky. 

You need to change, 

You and your un-perfectness are to deep for just anyone to understand.

The pollution people omit that you absorb

The hole you now have, caused by the damage

It's almost too late for repair.

I feel you sky. I feel you.

People paint you in a different light

No matter how bright your sunset is

No matter how wide your sights are set

You should do this, you should do that, 

you're good, you're terrible, you're amazing, you're not right

how does it feel to never just be enough?

All I can say is

I feel you sky. I feel you.

This is your reminder.

Parent the definition 

Main Entry: 1par·ent 

Pronunciation: \ˈper-ənt\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin parent-, parens; akin to Latin parere to give birth to

Date: 15th century

1 a : one that begets or brings forth offspring b : a person who brings up and cares for another 2 a : an animal or plant that is regarded in relation to its offspring b : the material or source from which something is derived c : a group from which another arises and to which it usually remains subsidiary <a parent company>

Now who do I write to to add these additional things to the parents dictionary? 

Parent -: zoo keeper, pro wrestler, head chef, therapist, criminal negotiator, maid.

I feel as though parents -more often than not- struggle with negativity. Whether it be negativity about or for other parents, negativity about a spouse and their assistance in said "parenting", or constantly being our own worst critic. That last one I am so beyond guilty of experiencing on a daily basis. I am not trying to sound hypocritical but I am trying to tell you- "YOU'RE NOT ALONE!"

Just yesterday I was thinking "My goodness James is there ever a time where you just could maybe be quiet and not tell me everything..." 

To be honest that sounds terrible of Me to think but I'm not the only guilty party on this planet lets just all be honest now shall we. My son talks quite a bit to me -and facing a what currently was a painful migraine made everything that he was saying (and doing as a matter of fact) just to make my head hurt worse. 

I did stop a moment and pray a prayer something like "God is it me?!" 

The thought that was released in my mind after I asked that was pretty much a confirming "yes". 

This is what I thought: my son is with me all day everyday. Out of all the people in the world I figure he would be sick of me first. But he isn't. He constantly is telling me things, pointing stuff out, wanting me to play with him etc. he plays with other kids but if mommy is playing too then he could care less about the other kids. 

I mean it's ME. He must think I'm something special or I dunno...Then I felt my spirits lift. It was a boost of sorts. If I had to be around someone that much I surely would be annoyed with them but he never gets tired of me. That's when I asked my son (almost as a joke and with a laugh) "do you think mommy is awesome?" And my son stopped messing with the DVDs and their respected cases and looked at me and said "yea" and then went back to what he was doing. He doesn't remember the time I lost my cool because he deliberately dumped shredded cheese on the carpet, he thinks I'm his comforter, his healer and among other things the stuff listed below the "official" definition of a parent.

I need to ease up on myself. Maybe easing up on others is your thing? Maybe easing up on your spouse because they don't parent the way you do is your thing? Maybe it's every single one of those options and then some. 

Ease up folks. You are doing your best. 

It is going to be just fine.  

You are a good mom.

You are a good dad.

Now repeat it until you believe it. 

The poor man pasta

The poor man pasta... how do I explain this? 

I came up with this pasta idea, when all I had were a few ingredients to make something for dinner. I became a master at this task when I went to college. You know the saying "starving artist". Well I know it first hand. Now I made this batch just for me and my two year old. so you will have to adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

Egg Noodles

frozen corn

frozen peas

Frozen spinach (I always bought fresh spinach in the produce section, then when i get home i stick it in the freezer)

1/4 cup bread crumbs

garlic

oregano

salt

pepper

Olive oil

Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken breasts (always have some of these on hand-salads, quesadillas, pasta dishes such as this, wraps) 

Instructions are easy.

Cook the chicken in the oven at 375 for 18-20 minutes. Or if your really short on time it's microwavable.

Cook pasta. Cook the amount you feel your family will devour.

Cook the corn, peas, and spinach in the same pot...its okay i promise. (since the spinach was frozen all I had to do was crunch it in my hands and it was pretty much shredded into the mix of veggies. hidden from sight..ninja like)

In a little bowl while the stuff is cooking mix breadcrumbs, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper together. 

After pasta is complete drizzle some olive oil over the pasta. Chop cooked chieken-add it to pasta. Drain water from veggies and add to pasta. Mix together. Then add the little bowl of mixed seasonings. mix well. You can add some butter or more olive oil to the mix if i needs a little extra moisture. I added about 2 more tablespoons of butter to it and mixed until it was melted. Thats it your done. Pretty easy.

Oh My Breakfast Bake

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 6 strips of bacon cut into chunks (cooked)
• 1/2 lb sausage (I used ground but you could buy the already cooked kind in the links and just microwave it- if its raw you need to cook it before adding to breakfast bake
• Day old french bread 
• Shredded cheeses (any type you like- i used cheddar, and swiss because its what I had on hand)
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons butter

Since I used a 9x9 baking dish my amounts might be need to be doubled for a family larger than 4.
OPTIONAL Add-ins
red onion ( I added this )
garlic powder
mushrooms
spinach
peppers
frozen/thawed hashbrowns (I think these would be best if they were thawed and water drained from them)

The more items you add to the bake the longer it might take to bake in the morning. (you could manually adjust the baking time if you were to sautee the mushroom/peppers/onions before so they were already soft)
NOW this is what I do and my breakfast bake was nice and fluffy. PREPARE THE NIGHT BEFORE COOKING. Stick it in the fridge overnight with a cover like saran wrap or press n seal and allow the flavors to get real comfy and nice with one another.


SINCE THIS IS THE NIGHT BEFORE:
Spray or grease 9x9 baking dish
Cube (or tear up) french bread and cover the bottom if the 9x9 baking dish with it. You might not use an entire loaf if you are only making a 9x9 size bake.

Add the sausage and bacon to the top of the bread.

This is when i add the cheeses just CHEESE that sucker up.

whisk the eggs and milk together add salt and pepper to taste
Pour over the top of the bake

Then put butter on top of the bake just take either the spoonfuls or squares and place them on top of the it all, no need to spread it around.

Cover and place in the fridge overnight. Now if one of your kiddos wakes up at like 6 or 7 am it would be a good time to place the bake in the oven.
THIS GOODNESS takes 45 minutes to bake properly in the oven at 350.
after the bake comes out you will want it to rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.


Now the the additions that you may or may not have added all are depending on your preferences. If you don't like sausage and you would much rather load it up with bacon -by all means- GO FOR IT! If you wanted hashbrowns i am pretty sure you need to put those on the bottom of the pan though.
Or you would like a veggie version get creative and put your veggies in there. This isn't rocket science...its science for sure, but not rocket science. If ANYONE wants me to make something before they try it leave me a comment and i will let you know how it turns out with pictures. Or if you want to share what you tried and loved, or didnt love I would be happy to hear about it!