Hearts Transformed

Today started out rainy and fairly warm given that it is February but by this evening it was down right frigid and called for a bowl of soup. I decided I wanted chicken chili and I thought I would create my own recipe. It was SO yummy and pretty healthy! Ranch Chicken Chili 4 cups chicken broth 1 small white onion 1 can Rotel 1 can diced green chiles  1 can white hominy drained 1 can white beans drained 1 can pinto beans drained 1/2 package Wildtree Creamy Ranch Dressing and Dip Mix 1 tablespoon Wildtree Chipotle Lime Rub 1 tablespoon Wildtree Grapeseed Oil 1/2 Rotisserie Chicken shredded black pepper to taste Heat oil in 4 quart pot and add onions until tender. Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Turn down and let simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with lime wedge and avocado slices.  Let know how you like it if you try. 

I don't often take sick days but Miss Chelsea doesn't know that and she has had her fair share of sick days. Today is one of those days. It has been so bitterly cold here and we ventured out the other night and wound up walking quite a distance in the cold windy air. And like magic the nose started running. Well last night the cold moved from runny nose to full on seal coughs and crying spells. Poor thing. By this afternoon Miss Chelsea is on full tilt and running around like her normal self. All of that back story to say, I stayed home today and I didn't feel bad at all so I knocked some things out like going through Mt Paperest on my desk. I found all kinds of goodies. Bills that I didn't pay on time (awesome), letters from our Compassion sponsor child that I hadn't responded to (sad), and an itunes card for a free download of a Christmas song I picked up for a friend (Merry Christmas 2015?). I looked everywhere for a card that was a just because occasion and cou...

I have continued to have a very tiny little corner of my heel dug in about our now three year old move to Maryland. I have continued to think of Nashville as HOME. I have let a large part of my heart long for my life back there. What is so wrong with all of this? I have missed a lot of what was my present and now is missed opportunity. I was choosing not to remember the lonely times when I felt like I didn't know anyone. I forget the months when I wasn't sure how I was  going to pay rent. The truth is that there was really great times in Nashville but there were some heartache mixed in as well.  It has been a year of letting go and I haven't even seen Frozen. I am trying really hard to live in the present  I am trying really hard to remember things in totality instead of parts  Remembering isn't bad but getting stuck isn't helpful. 

I am sitting in my bed typing with tears streaming down my face and snuggling next to my sweet baby girl. It has been a difficult morning for my momma's heart. Chelsea has been diagnosed with Epilepsy . She has been having what seemed like a slight tick for almost a year and they have become more frequent and been joined by moments of pure catatonic state that last about 30 seconds. I brought up the tick with the pediatrician at her 18 month well visit but he said given her age we should just watch it and take note. Then about two months ago when we were traveling to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday Chels had a convulsing seizure. It was to date the worst day of my life. The seizure was accompanied by a fever and the medical team at the hospital felt confident it was a febrile seizure . Which if you don't know 1 in 10 children experience before the age of 2. My brother had experienced this when he was little and given the fact I was 16 at the time remember very clearly ...

There are many areas of my life that I feel I have a pretty good handle on, at least most days.  My little family is doing well, my extended family is a blessing, I have a strong belief system and friends that love me. I am doing well and trying to do good.  Here is the hang up. My two sore subjects: I have spent too much money on junk and I eat entirely too much junk. So what am I going to do? I am going to use this amazing product Plexus Slim and I am going to get everyone else to use it too.  Please check it out and get ready to be inspired. Today is December 2 2014 and 50 weeks from today I am going to be 50 pounds lighter and 50k closer to financial success! Join me! before 12/02/2014

Best of intentions and so many starts but here I am more than a week past the last post and I am beating myself up. This is not the point. The point is to get a perspective out there. I have so much spinning in this head all the time. I was just thinking the other day how I need a microphone that will record around me at all times and then I though well I could get a little recorder. But in all honesty I would just record all my random thoughts and never listen back to them. I think like anything else in life we have good ideas but unless we put some goals and deadlines to those ideas they certainly never get accomplished. So here you go, three things I want to accomplish this week. 1. Call about the charger I left in the hotel back in October. Probably too late. Probably don't have it. Yes, but does it hurt to call and ask. 2. Take the SD card from the camera so I can try and remember the last place I took pictures because not only have I lost the battery charger for the came...

Let me start this post by giving you a little background. I come from a family of strong women, very strong women. I don't mean the pulling trucks with their teeth kind of strength, I mean the pull yourself up by your boot straps kind. Perfect example, My grandmother likes to say of other women who are complaining about pregnancy or labor, "She speaks as though she is the first woman to ever have a baby?" So early on I was taught "weak" women were bad and "strong" women were good. I carried that view for many years. As I entered college, I swore that I would never do anything as silly as join a sorority. I carried that attitude on trips with friends, on women's retreats, and at women's conferences. But then, I grew up or at the very least I grew. I grew to see that the women in my family have as many fears and insecurities as most other women. It was more a lack of being honest and vulnerable than actual strength I had experienced as a child....