Thanks to all who entered the Warm Biscuit Bedding Company gift certificate giveaway. The lucky winner is Farrah of Baby Love Slings! Congrats, mama!
And a HUGE thank you to Warm Biscuit Bedding for sponsoring such a generous giveaway for my amazing friends and readers. I hope you all found some really cute things there that you just can't live without!
Alright, ya'll. My gorgeously named sweet friend Megan of Fried Okra opened up her recipe files and commenced with revving up our taste buds with her top ten sizzlin' spring and summer recipes. (That creamy linguine with zucchini? Yum-O!) She has invited us to share our best o' the best, and I am only happy to oblige.
(First, apologies to Veggiemommy, Reesh, and my other vegetarian friends and readers. You may not find today's offering quite so sizzlin' . . .)
Spring and summer offers us the perfect time to fire up that backyard grill, and that is a double blessing for this mama in that 1) grilling keeps the heat outside where it belongs and 2) my man is all-too-happy to work his grilling wonders on that shiny monument to manly cooking. He really is quite the grill master, and his repertoire ranges from perfectly cooked steaks to deliciously grilled bananas and all manner of fare in between.
One of his specialties that we eat pretty much year 'round are hamburgers. Of course, this is a staple in backyard cuisine, but we were unsatisfied with just your average ground beef patty seasoned with a little salt and pepper. Rather than inventing new and unique ways to dress the grilled burger, my husband went a'hunting for a new and unique way to create the perfect patty.
A little digging led him to two schools of thought: be creative in the meats used in the patty or be creative in the seasonings you add in. It's no surprise that, as Texans, we take a more-is-more approach to dining, so we decided to combine the two schools of thought. The result - best burger ever!
Here's what we do:
1) Start with a pound of ground beef. Now, pick another kind of meat to add to the mix. We originally were going to add a pound of ground veal to ours, but our small town grocer doesn't keep ground veal in stock (go figure), so the butcher suggested we might try ground brisket. The result was pure burger perfection for us, but you might play around a little to find the taste, texture, and flavor combination you like best. Ground bison, perhaps?
2) So work your two pounds of meat together and prepare to add your seasonings. Sure, you could go with basic salt and pepper, but why stop there? I'll tell you our favorite way to season - add equal parts barbecue sauce and brown mustard. Add just a bit at a time, you don't want to overwhelm the meat and end up with raw hamburger mush. We've also used equal parts soy sauce and lime juice with great success. We've been known to add grape jelly in after we salt and pepper (you won't believe how smashing the result is), and once we even added in some leftover bean and bacon soup. Now, if you do find your meat mixture is getting too moist, you'll want to crumble a piece of bread (plain old white bread works fine) to sop up some of the juiciness. You want moist burgers, but too much moisture and those burgers will fall apart on our grill.
Pop those beauties on the grill, and you've got yourself some sizzlin' summer perfection!
You may find with such flavorful burger patties, you can dress them as minimally as you like so you can really appreciate the taste of the meat. We usually just have potato salad or chips on the side. Can't go wrong with a big pitcher of Texas sweet tea, but if you use our recipe, keep your toothbrush handy for efficient cavity prevention.
Make sure you head back to Megan's place to drool over all her recipes and see what everyone else has to offer up today!
(burger photo by (nutmeg) )
That's right, gentle readers! I did it. After months and months of knowing I should want to stop the plastic bottled water madness in the SortaCrunchy hacienda but not really wanting to, I've finally come to my senses and surrendered to a life less plastic-y. And I've taken the pledge.
And can I tell you this? It's so liberating. I cannot tell you how irritated I would get with the plastic bottle congregations that somehow colonized around the house. The nightstands in our room were particularly popular breeding grounds. A few weeks ago, we decided it was enough, that it was time. It has definitely been one of those things I didn't realize I was so deeply in bondage to until the plastic shackles were removed.
So we've been just keeping pitchers of water in the fridge to meet our cold water needs - pouring it into glass tumblers (gasp) the old-fashioned way! I still need to figure out our out-of-the-house solutions. I'm leaning towards Kleen Kanteens but haven't yet pulled the trigger on those; I'm seriously considering the Foogo cups for the girls, or do I want to go with Born Free, which I can buy locally?
In the meantime, Debra of Days of Grace shared a great glass water bottle solution last week - reuse and re-purpose glass juice bottles! I grabbed some at the grocery deli this week and they are working wonderfully for our transition phase. Even The Coach is on board with this change and he is really digging the Nantucket Nectar bottles (thanks again for that, Debra!).
The Think Outside the Bottle site has some good information on why you might find it works for you to step away from the bottled water; additionally, check out The Green Guide's "Tapped Out: The True Cost of Bottled Water" and the Nutrition Issues in Gastroenterology article "Bottled Water Myths: Separating Fact from Fiction."
Make sure you stop by Shannon's place for more Works For Me Wednesday goodness!
Wow, you guys! I am so thrilled with all the amazing musical feedback you shared with me last week. I have had so much fun working through your recommendations.
That post had more comments that any non-giveaway post I've done (I think). Score!
(That reminds me . . . I've been wanting to follow-up on the post commenting on comments by saying I totally understand that very few of us can comment everywhere we like to read. I am the Queen of Reading Via Feeds! It was definitely not my intention to send anyone on a guilt trip for not commenting here all the time. I just want to make it clear that I am always happy to hear from you - whether you are a long-time friend/new reader, long-time reader/new friend, or if you landed here haphazardly by Googling something important like delaying vaccines or making Texas sweet tea. Or greasy hair. I'll try to shut up about that for now, although it's hard for me because the dynamics of the blogging community is endlessly fascinating to me.)
Anyway. MypointandIdohaveone:
It was so great to hear from ya'll on the music issue, and it was a great reminder to me of how outrageously blessed I am to have such a diverse, intelligent, gorgeous, insightful group of friends to run around with. What else can you tell me to make my life better? I think I shall start a new series: You Tell Me. You know all that unsolicited advice you have just rocking and rolling around in your head? I'm soliciting.
First question in the series: What's the scoop on vitamins and supplements?
I'm pretty sure that at least D and I should be taking them. She is just about as preschool-picky as they come, and her diet consists chiefly of buttered (whole wheat) pasta, broccoli, milk, 100% juice, breads, lunch meat, rice, PB&J, and Carnation Instant Breakfast. And "chick'n nuggets" (both the McDonalds variety and the far healthier but equally acceptable Morningstar veggie variety).
I am about as un-picky as they come (check my waistline for visual validation), but I think as a nursing mom I should be taking something beyond my prenatals to make sure AJ is getting all she needs. Right? Some kind of DHA thing? See how little I know?
So - you tell me. My eyes totally glaze over when I browse the supplement aisle. What do we need? What do you take and why? Be specific and tell me what brands you think are good, 'cause that's also confusing to me.
This was not the morning I wanted to make pancakes.
We hit the snooze button twice and each of us were a little surly about a later start to the day that we had planned. (Me more so than he, truth be told.) D and AJ were also up within minutes and I was left scrambling to get a few quick verses of Scripture in along with a shotgun spray of prayer.
Lord, please help me to . . .
Lord, thank You for . . .
Lord, don't let me forget . . .
Don't you hate that running late start to the day? It's even worse on a Monday, I think. Amidst trying to organize thoughts and lists for the day, there were phone calls to take and even more to ignore. There are some monumental things happening in the life of my family right now, and my mind was spinning with distraction. (I'm pretty sure the second cup of coffee might have had something to do with that, too.)
"I want PAN CAKES! I want PAN CAKES! I wanna HELP make PAN CAKES!"
I so don't have time for this.
But I am trying to remember that people are more important than projects and teaching is more important than to-do, so I agreed. Okay. Come help me make pancakes.
Only she didn't really want to help. She just wanted pancakes.
I don't think I even realized how hard I was gritting my teeth until the muscle in my jaw started to twinge. I tried to focus on cleansing breaths while I pulled the mixing bowls down and dug for measuring cups.
I've been faithfully reading A Holy Experience. Reading isn't really quite the word though. Drinking in, swimming around, thoughtfully relishing . . . those are all better ways to describe experiencing Ann's writing. She has this ongoing project - 1000 Gifts - and she's encouraged me to seek the gifts, the endless gifts, our Father is always giving in the midst of every day.
As I flipped to the pancake recipe in my trusty Better Homes checkered cookbook, I decided to focus my thoughts on the gifts of that moment:
1) I have a beautiful, happy, healthy daughter to make pancakes for.
2) What once seemed unattainable has now become commonplace - she can communicate with me through words.
3) I have a pantry and refrigerator full of food for my family.
4) I can read from a cookbook.
5) Stovetop. Electricity. Running water.
6) Woke up today just as yesterday and the many days before that getting to do my dream job.
Those are just a few of the gifts that came to mind while I mixed and poured and flipped and served.
I want to make this practice of gratitude such a part of my day that it becomes an unforced habit. I'm going to join Ann and the others in her community of gratitude by purposefully recording and celebrating these endless gifts for the Giver of all good things.
Let me know if you decide to join in, too.
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I have, in fact, started the Shampoo Free experiment. It's going, um, surprisingly well. More on that later.
I ain't fakin' this . . . *
Last night, The Coach surprised me with my Mother's Day/early birthday present - an impossibly tiny little nano.
That man. Ridiculous in lavishness.
Anyway, I sat down with iTunes for the first time ever last night and was immediately overwhelmed. Thanks to my friend Melissa's guidance, I knew I wanted to start with Patty Griffin's Impossible Dream (sitting in my Amazon cart for weeks now). After that, I found myself browsing Laurie Berkner selections and was struck by what a lame-o I am.
So who wants to help a mama out? Wanna help me build my post-career, pre-soccer mom playlist?
What are your essential must-listen picks?
To give you an idea of the music I gravitate towards, there's the aforementioned Patty Griffin, and I've long been a fan of the Dixie Chicks (newer stuff more than older, and I have Taking the Long Way committed to memory). I adore Joshua Radin and would be thrilled if someone would release a soundtrack anthologizing every song from every episode from every season of Scrubs.
Let's see, what else? I can never say no to George or Jimmy. And I actually really do like Laurie Berkner and have been known to listen to her when the girls are nowhere around.
I'm totally okay with Taking it Easy, but I've been known to Blister in the Sun, too.
As far as spiritually inspired or inspiring music goes, I tend to have the same problems with Contemporary Christian music that I have with Christian fiction (let's leave it at that), but I am a hard-core fan of the old school hymns. (Something feels very wrong about hard-core and hymns in the same sentence.) Wanna expand my horizons in this genre?
I can't wait to hear your recommendations, as ya'll are some of the coolest people I know. I just know you are listening to some very cool stuff that you cannot wait to tell me about.
* For my more evolved friends and readers who don't watch commercial TV, the reference here is to the newest iPod ad featuring the Ting Ting's song "Shut Up and Let Me Go ."
Oh, this is so exciting! The lovely, warm, and inviting folks at Warm Biscuit Bedding Company want to offer you - you gorgeous SortaCrunchy readers you! - the chance to win a fifty dollar gift certificate to their darling store! You may have heard of Warm Biscuit Bedding - they have been featured in the pages of BabyTalk, Cookie, and Parents magazines and have been featured on ABC News and the Today Show. One look through their scrumptious catalog and you'll quickly see what all the buzz is about!
Warm Biscuit Bedding offers vintage-inspired bedding that is sure to quicken the heartbeat of any mommy with great taste. Beyond their bedding lines, they also offer a delightful array of vintage toys, books, games, and jewelry.
Every time I browse there, I find something else to fall in love with. My current objects-de-drool include this pink perfection embroidered Moses basket (oh, I DO love a great Moses basket!):
as well as this vintage-inspired copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and little matching bunny ("It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." *big sigh*):
I think D would absolutely burst if one of these lavender jewelry boxes with a dancing ballerina somehow made it into her hands:
And yes, sure, I'm partial to the girly stuff, but they do have plenty of little boy goodness, too. I know one little Beep Beep who might be pretty fond of the entire line of vintage train bedroom decor:
SO! On to the giving away!
We'll make this nice and easy. All you need to do is go to the Warm Biscuit Bedding Company site, browse around, take in the sights, and come back here and leave me a comment with what your very favorite item in the store is. Open to all - bloggers and non-bloggers alike. Make sure your email address on the comment form is accurate so I know where to find you if you win!
Bloggers - want to be entered twice? Post about this giveaway with a link to it at your blog and email me the link or paste your link into the comments (make sure it is the link to the giveaway post - not your homepage).
Giveaway will run through 6 AM, May 16th, at which time I'll draw a winner. Good luck! Happy drooling shopping!
I haven't done a Works For Me Wednesday in a long time! But last week's Shampoo Free post which mentioned my success with the Oil Cleansing Method spawned some questions and comments that I wanted to address all in one sitting. Incidentally, Shannon's theme for WFMW this week is what doesn't work for me, so I'll play a little fast and loose with the theme by saying . . .
what doesn't work for me are traditional facial cleansers. They remove my make-up okay, but they also tend to remove lots of healthy, beneficial facial oils, too. Sorta like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, only we do not throw babies around here. (Although Big Sister has been known to throw things at the Baby as of late, but that's a whole 'nother post.)
Anyway, as I mentioned last week, it was actually my husband who persuaded me to try this method of facial cleansing. I'll bet you didn't know that football coaches can also be into natural living and good skin care, huh? Well, there's a lot about football coaches that might surprise you! Anyway, he came across this method and thought it made sense - the idea being that most facial cleansers create two damaging situations for your skin: 1) they remove the body's natural oils from the skin causing it to overproduce oil to compensate for the oil that was washed away, and 2) many include ingredients like fragrances that irritate the now vulnerable skin.
I'll let you read the article to learn more, but for now I want to address some specific questions that were posed to me:
1) How often should you use OCM?
Personally, I do an OCM treatment on my face every other or night, maybe every two nights. It's important to note that I use bareMinerals make-up and feel no need to wash this off my face at night. Maybe I should, but I don't, and I don't have any problems with break-outs or build-up. The Coach does a treatment about three times a week or so.
My sister has begun to use OCM to cleanse her face, too, and she does it about five nights a week. She wears traditional (non-mineral) make-up and on the nights she doesn't do OCM, she uses her trusty Clinique face wash.
2) What kind of skin types can use the OCM?
I would guess any skin type. I have combination dry/oily in the T-zone skin and it works great for me. My sister's skin tends to be more oily than dry, and she has found great success with this method, too.
3) My skin feels dry after I use the OCM. Why?
It's possible you are using too much castor oil. The castor oil is the part of the system that actually carries dirt, make-up, impurities, etc., away from your skin. Too much can be drying. If you find your skin is too dry, try changing up the proportions in your oil mixture. Instead of one part CO to three parts of your nourishing oil (we use EVOO), try one part CO to four parts or five parts nourishing oil.
4) Do you still use moisturizer?
I think you'll find if you do an OCM treatment at night, you don't need to put on a moisturizer before bed. I still put on just a tad in the mornings after I shower if I have dry patches on my face.
5) Have you had any break-outs since you started the OCM?
Actually, no. When my hormone levels fluctuate with PMS, I might have a blemish or two pop up (blemish . . . I'm terribly proper, aren't I?), but other than that, my skin is really quite clear. And sometimes even glowy. (Or maybe that's the minerals talking.)
If you want to read more, here's a few articles I can suggest in addition to the one I linked to above:
Cleaning Up With Oil: The Oil Cleansing Method
Suite 101.com: The Oil Cleansing Method
Aisha Wood: OCM - The Oil Cleansing Method
Don't forget to go by Shannon's to read all the What DOESN'T Work For Me Wednesday posts!
My dearest, darling Aliza Joy,
You know what? I never got your seven months letter written. You're probably okay with that, because that's the kind of kid you are turning out to be. Just happy to be. We spent the better part of the last month battling a dreadful little virus that did not want to turn loose of its grip on you, but I do believe we are on the upswing.
Oh, child! So much to say about you at this age. I love these months, this Golden Stage of Babyhood. Everything brings you such delight. You love to laugh and learn and look; everything is a wonder to behold with those big, beautiful eyes of yours.
Here's a rundown of what life looks like with you right now:
* You are now mobile! You've been doing a lot of creative movement and would inch and scootch and roll where you wanted to go for weeks now, but last week you really took off with actual crawling. Still working out some of the kinks, but if you get your eyes set on something you really want (usually something Dacey really does not want you to have), you can get to it lickety split.
* You've been pushing up to sitting from laying down for a few weeks now, and I think you do it in your sleep. Then you wake up sitting up in your crib and get quite mad over the not being able to lay back down. You'll get there! Just be patient.
* You love to entertain and be entertained. The people who have the fortune of sitting behind y0u in Mommy and Daddy's Sunday school class or at church or in restaurants or wherever you are tagging along find themselves distracted by your insistence that everyone pay attention to you. Yep, a little Middle Child Syndrome, even though we haven't added a younger sibling for you to compete with yet.
* You love your sister and your evening bath with her never fails to bring you joy. I can't take my hands off of you for one second in there as you are constantly trying to scale the bathtub walls. In fact, you are constantly on the lookout for any dangerous or scary thing you can do to make Mommy's heart stop. No fear.
* You are resolute in your decision that baby food is for babies and from now on, it's table food only for you, the Big Girl. Your approach to food scares me a little as it is the picture of reckless abandon. Again, no fear.
Here you are in all your loveliness:
Definitely one of my favorite ages. Can't wait to see what the next weeks and months will bring.
Kisses,
Mama
First of all - thank you for the fabulous feedback on whether or not to go shampoo-free. I do believe I am going to try it, but I think it's pretty imperative I get a haircut first.
(Confession: My last haircut was one week before AJ was born. She rolled over the big eight months today. Yes, I should be writing and posting her eight month letter today, but I'm not. I'm an awesome mom like that. And I am not so great with the haircare like that, too.)
Anyway, Sister is coming into town this weekend and will be distracting the girls for a few minutes so I can pop in somewhere and get this dried-out, yucky length cut off. After that, we'll let the experimenting begin!
Okay, but more importantly than that is this - there's been some great discussion on the concept of commenting today. I'm gonna send you two places to read some great insights. It all started with Beth (I Should Be Folding Laundry) sharing her thoughts in On Leaving Comments. My sweet friend and bloggy rock star Megan (FriedOkra) followed up with her thoughts, which I think are equally important for you to hear.
Both of these posts echo what I have been trying to say in various ways to various non-commenting friends and family (ahem, Sister) - you have to search far and wide to find a blogger who is not thrilled by comments. I would go so far as to say that the bloggers who don't want you to comment are the bloggers who have (for various reasons) disabled comments on their blogs. If comments are enabled, Blogga wants to hear from you. Yes, you, non-blogger. Yes, you, reader who is afraid TypePad is just kidding on the comment form about your email only be visible to me and if you do leave a comment then other readers are going to snag your email and start sending you spiritual blackmail chain letters insisting you forward them if you love Jesus. And yes, you, faithful reader who never comments because you are afraid you don't have anything of import to say. Heck, even if you wanna say, "Hi, you're an idiot. You're about to be a greasy-headed idiot" I'll still appreciate it and probably won't delete it because at least you said something!
I do love comments. I try to reply back through email in a timely way. I get behind sometimes and don't follow through the way I would like to, but mostly I really do respond to your comments. Like Beth wrote, comments really are a little payday for me. My pockets are deep, and so is my need for approval (heh). Know that your feedback is always, always welcome here.
Brennan Manning: Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God
Madeleine L'Engle: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Wheaton Literary Series)
Shane Claiborne: Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals
Amanda Blake Soule: The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections
Allison Tyler Jones: Expressions: Taking Extraordinary Photos for Your Scrapbooks and Memory Art
Jennifer Carden: Toddler Café: Fast, Healthy, and Fun Ways to Feed Even the Pickiest Eater
