Monday Musings (vol. 4): Sister Time and Helping Those In Need

Happy Monday Y'all!

Welcome to Monday's Musings, where I unload things that are on my brain.

~ Sister Weekend ~

I got to spend this Saturday with my favorite sister in the whole world!!  My brother-in-law sent us on a sister shopping day, sans children, for my sister's birthday.  I meant to take lots of pictures of us trying on ridiculous fashions, but we got caught up in adult conversations that did not include diapers and potty training and were not interjected with parenting phrases like "do not sit on your brother!!!".

Besides, we were too busy holding up the check out lines (as in making people wait longer, not pointing a gun at them) by my sister's our inability to answer simple questions such as "how long has it been since you used your card?".

Little tip:  The benefit of not getting to go shopping very often is that your store card may become inactive (who knew that could happen?).  Why is that a benefit?  Oh, because you get an extra 15% off of your purchase by reactivating your card.  So with the 40% off sale already going on in the store, my sister got a total of 55% off of her purchase!  

~ Recipe ~

I've been trying to find ways to simplify our Sundays in order to spend more time relaxing, refreshing, and hanging with my boys.  I like the idea of a crockpot meal, but we have had little success with this cooking technique.  And when it takes a large quantity of food, that cooks all day long, to get to a result that is incredibly disappointing, you might get a little gun-shy of making crockpot meals, like me.  Do not underestimate my ability to kill a meal.  My sister told me "you can't ruin it" (the kiss of death in my world) to a chili recipe ... and I ruined it.  My sister-in-law gave me a no fail potato soup recipe, and well, it failed.  It tasted like dirt with some cleaner mixed in.  You get my point.

But we have a winner!!  I successfully made pork posole*.  It was super yummy and The Hubs ate seconds interjecting his bites with "this is SO good!!".

Recipe and photo source here

Here are my tips for choosing a yummy recipe off of the internet:

1.  Choose a recipe from a website that uses a rating system.  The above recipe got 4.6 out of 5 stars.

2.  Read the reviews.  Some websites how a "most helpful comments" category.  Read those.

(*I made some changes to the original recipe:  I used green onions instead of a yellow onion because I had them in the fridge and wanted to use them up.  I also used less water per the most helpful comments I read; actually I used 2 cups of chicken broth.  I substituted two jalapeños (insides removed) for the green chiles.  And I always put more spices than the recipe calls for; I don't really measure.  I used less chile powder and added some paprika.  As our garnish we used cilantro, lime, and avocado.  It came out more "gumbo texture" than soup, so if you want more of a soup texture, add the amount of water per the recipe.)

~ Homemaking Irony ~

Several months ago I complained on Facebook about my dryer buzzer making me want to jump out of my skin every time that it went off.  The dryer model with the off switch was $500 more.  The next day I came home from Bible Study to find this.

Blessed off switch to my dryer buzzer

My blessed husband had installed a switch on our dryer, for like $1.50.  

Just last week, I was thinking about how helpful it would be to have a buzzer option on my washer because I'm constantly forgetting to switch the clothes to the dryer.  Oh, the irony.  I've just resorted to setting a timer.

~ From The Mouths of Teenagers* ~

"You don't realize how good life is until you've experienced suffering."

(*My husband and I work with the youth group at our church and help with the teens in small groups. )   

~ Donation Opportunity ~

My brother-in-law, Dave, will be running the Atlanta Marathon for the second time on October 27th, and this time he is running it in honor of the amazing students at The Joseph Sams School (where my sister works).  To raise funds for the school, he is asking people to donate $26, one dollar for every mile, or any amount that you can spare.  Here is a video about the school: 

Please support Dave's efforts in supporting this amazing school by visiting www.josephsamsschool.org and clicking on "DONATE" in the bottom left of the page.  All the money goes directly to the school and no amount is too small.  Thank you!