Sometimes I picture myself staring in a Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy with that perfect song coming on at that perfect moment to convey what I’m feeling into lyrical words with a catchy tune.  Except Ryan is actually Joel…and I’m super cute, funny, skinny and witty, like Isla Fisher or Sandra Bullock.

I know it makes me super cheese-ball cheesy, like, mixed tape kind of nerdy to have soundtracks playing in my head, but sometimes songs really stick with me.  So much so that they can tell the story of what’s going on in that moment that I flash back to each time I hear that song.

Kind of like scent association and how it works in your memory bank.  I’ll always associate the smell of a pack of fresh Pampers diapers with the boys as babies.  A fresh pot of steamed rice with the warmth of home and my mom & fresh mowed lawns, motor oil and pork chops and fried rice with Dad.  Crew Forming Cream and Fresh scent Old Spice with Joel…I could go on and on here.

So I’ve been in Vegas these last few days working my tail off at a convention and, of course, missing my family.  As I was working up the energy to go to the final reception, thinking about how much I wished Joel was with me, this song by The Lumineers came on and my heart skipped a beat.

Why?

Because a few months ago, Joel sent me an email with this link to the video saying, “Babe, this song makes me think of you.  I’m not sure all the lyrics, because I’m not good at that kind of stuff, but I like it.”  I had never heard it and thought he was kidding because I didn’t get the title, “Ho Hey”, but give it a listen and it will come together for ya like it did for me.

So show me family

all the blood that I will bleed

I dunno where I belong

I dunno where I went wrong,

But I can write a song

I belong with you, you belong with me

You’re my sweetheart

I belong with you, you belong with me

You’re my sweet

I heard this song probably 4 or 5 times this weekend after not hearing it for a few weeks.  The universe is telling me something…

And this one by Sanctus Real.

Roles reversed, I sent this one to Joel in a link saying it made me think of us.

I was driving into the city to meet a girlfriend for brunch, feeling guilty about leaving the boys behind.  It was a day Aiden really wanted to play and Drew was beyond cute and cuddly, but I’d had a tough week at work & really needed some girl time.  As I was driving up the hill to the pub, this song came on and I started to cry.

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes

They’re just children from the outside

I’m working hard, I tell myself they’ll be fine

They’re independent

But on the inside, I can hear them saying

“Lead me with strong hands

Stand up when I can’t

Don’t leave me hungry for love

Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you’re willing to fight

That I’m still the love of your life

This song has woven its way into my daily prayers (listen to the whole song, you’ll understand) as I remind myself to slow down and see what’s in front of me and find the way to be the best mom I can be. 

“Lead Me” reminds me to allow myself to be led and how to lead when it comes to my family and my faith.

It tugs on my heart every time I hear it and gives me tingles down to my toes.  What ‘dreams’ am I chasing, and what am I really working so hard on if they (my boys & Joel) really are my dreams come true already?

OH, and this one by Brad Paisley.

Our wedding song, which was an audible, Payton Manning style.

We’d never had A song up to that point, and of the 3 or 4 I asked him to listen to, this wasn’t even one of them.  It came on the radio randomly later that evening and he said, with total sincerity and assertiveness, “this one.”  Period, end of story.

It was a statement and I didn’t even question it.  I hadn’t even asked him a question, or realized he was still thinking about possible wedding songs.  So, we danced to “She’s Everything” and that was that.

She’s a picture in my wallet

My unborn children’s mother

……

She’s the voice I love to hear

Someday when I’m ninety

She’s that wooden rocking chair

I want rocking right beside me

Everyday that passes

I only love her more

Yeah, she’s the one

That I’d lay down my own life for

And my iPhone randomly finds it and plays it without fail (from the shuffle setting) each time I fly back to town from a business trip.  It’s now 1 of the 2 things I love about the plane’s descent and landing in Denver.  The 2nd is the cool crisp Colorado air that greets me when I exit the plane.  You can’t get that anywhere else.

These are just 3 of the many songs that play around in my head during certain ‘missing you’ moments in my romantic comedy soundtrack.

Think I would win an Academy Award for Original ‘Mixed-Tape’ Soundtrack with these?

Wow, I got sappy on y’all!  I guess it’s true: absence makes the heart grow fonder…and my mixed tape soundtrack expands to the B side.

So happy to finally be home; time to turn it off and power down for the night.

~pw

There is feeling sick, and there is sick of being sick.  I’ve reached the sick of being sick stage.  I’m all for laying in bed and recuperating, but a girl can only do so much of that!  Once I could lift my head up off the pillows (about 2.5 days into lifelessness), I started compiling a list of things to help me shake this funk and say goodbye to the Bride of Frankenstein hair-do I’ve been sporting.

Now, know that I’m not a doctor or any other type of health care professional.  I’m not talking about things that will cure your cold, I’m talking about a few things that will make you feel close to human again.

Here goes:

• Drag your achy bones out of bed and take a hot shower, scrubbing your teeth to double squeaky clean

~ Just because you can’t smell you, doesn’t mean those around you aren’t suffering in your stench.

• Apply a little bronzer and blush ~ this will take your look from “sleeping with the fishes” closer to a blushing “Sleeping Beauty”.

• Make yourself an appointment ~ by day 2, I was ready to call the doctor.  This crud wasn’t getting kicked on it’s own.  Although an appointment for a manicure or a pedicure is also a good choice, try the doc first.

• Put on some jewelry ~ 2 days in bed without and I miss my anni-birthday necklace, my wedding ring and the first ever pair of diamond earrings Joel gave me our first ever Valentine’s day together, 9 years ago.  Yep, still wear ’em.

• Leave the house ~ get some fresh air.

~ Walk to the mailbox, go to the park, or drive to before mentioned appointment; either way, get outside!

• Treat yourself to a Starbucks ~ fancy coffee or fancy tea is always nice.

~ Soothes the soul and warms you from the inside out.

Now that you’ve showered, brushed your teeth, but on bronzer, jewelry and made yourself an appointment, you have places to go!  Don’t let a stubborn virus hold you down.  It may knock you on your butt for a few days, but it can’t hold you back.

**These are clearly older pics of the boys to help illustrate my tips.  They are well and healthy as can be!  I’ve spared you the potential monstrosity of my own pics as I’m still in recovery mode from this nasty little virus.**

Did someone say antibacterial??  Now try really hard to wake up feeling well so you go back to work tomorrow!

~pw

Truth be told, I’ve been having a little trouble corralling the kiddos lately. Partly because they are 4.5 and 2 years old, and partly because I’ve need to search for my own patience and maybe look at the way I’m communicating (or not) with them. And mostly because I seem to always be in a hurry…

Yes, I admit, I’m not a “perfect” parent, but I’m a good mom! I just needed to find ways to overcome some of my recent challenges. Such as…

Parenting tip #1: Kids don’t care that you’re running late, nor is it usually their faults initially.

As in, not Aiden’s fault that he can’t brush his teeth faster than I can blow dry my hair since MOM is the one who slept late).

Parenting tip #2: Even siblings don’t always get along and sing in harmony while they play.

My bad! I thought brothers and sisters loved each other to pieces all of the time…

Which leads to Parenting tip #3: An abandoned toy isn’t cool enough until another kiddo plays with it.

Then suddenly everything is “mine” and all heck breaks loose.

So how do I solve for these?

Now, judge me if you must, but I saw this on Pinterest (which isn’t something I thought I would ever say) and thought I would give it a shot. A teacher blogged about a visual tool for positive reinforcement using a fishbowl (find her post here) and it clicked with me that I can totally use this idea tailored to our own situation.

I ran to Target on my lunch break to see what supplies I could find (I’m sure a craft store would have been a better deal, but Hobby Lobby doesn’t sell laundry detergent and we were in desperate need, so Target would have to do!).

I found a medium sized glass jar with a lid ($5.49), a pack of puffy stickers ($2.99) and two sheets of clear-type scrapbooking stickers ($.99/ea) and a pack of fuzzy pom-poms in different shapes and sizes ($3.99). For a grand total of $14.45, we now have a visual positive reinforcement tool that the boys are already having so much fun with.

All together at the table, we put the boys’ names on opposite sides of the jar and the words, “Be Good” and “Kind” on the other sides with the alphabet stickers. Then, we let them decorate the rest of the jar with the scrapbook stickers. GREAT teamwork exercise for the boys, by the way!

Aiden saw the pom-poms and immediately asked me if he could have one. I told him that he could earn one by being kind and helpful to his brother, to me and Joel, or a friend, Miss. Sally (his teacher) and even Nana/Papa & Grandma/Grandpa. He chewed on that for a little bit, then immediately went to help Drew find his pacifier ~ without being asked!

Then, I told him that every time he is kind, good, patient, he uses his “listening ears” (so he didn’t have to be asked something twice), if he didn’t talk back or pout (this list goes on, but we focus on a few each day) he could earn a fuzzy that he could put in his jar, like a piggy bank. When it’s full we can “cash-in” the pom-poms for a prize!

At this age, a $1 Hot Wheel from the grocery store is a big deal, so he knows he can earn a Hot Wheel, a small bag of Skittles, a page of stickers, a yo-yo, an eraser, a pencil, a folder, etc…pretty much anything from the $1 bin at Target.

Easy-peasy, right? Sure this could be construed as bribing, but it works!

So now, Aiden tries to get his morning routine done before I do, he’s putting more thought into a game for two so he and Drew can play together rather than a game for 1, and he doesn’t panic when Drew takes interest in a toy Aiden saw first (prevents the snatching and the freak outs and pouts) because he knows no-fuss events earn him a pom-pom for his jar.

And we get to focus on the good stuff rather than the bad stuff.  And wrestling with each other is fun again, not ferocious.

He’s really proud when he gets to put a new pom-pom in his jar. He had a sleepover at Papa & Nana’s this weekend and I sent him with one for his pocket with the instructions that if Nana didn’t have to take it away (if he was naughty) he could put it in his jar when he got home. At the end of the weekend, he still had it and was so proud of himself when he got to add it to his jar.

Being a parent is one big adventure without a real instruction manual and no kid is wired the same. I wasn’t even sure this would work for Aiden and Drew, but it does work for them and it does work in our house. If you decide try this, or a variation of this, with your munchkins, let me know how it goes!

Keep the faith, keep encouraging goodness and keep the focus on the positive. Amen.

~pw

When Joel asked me if I wanted to go ‘halves’ on a bushel of fresh roasted green chiles with his mom this past weekend, I didn’t think twice.

Heck yes, I do!  Fresh is waaaaaaay better than canned, hands down!

We drove out to meet her at Palombo’s Roadside Market in Brighton to see what there is to see.  I’m told this is where the locals go, this is where the freshest local produce can be found, and this farmer’s market is a real, puts other ‘parking-lot-tent-style’ farmer’s markets to shame, kind of farmer’s market.

Our kids were so excited to see all of the veggies laid out in front of them (as if I’d never taken them to a grocery store’s produce isle a day in their lives?!).  Aiden was telling strangers how much he loved tomatoes, how he thought we should buy all the carrots so he can eat them up and grow big and strong and how much he loves colored bell peppers and that he thought we should have a bell pepper party with all the different colors.  He wanted to buy everything!

Aaaaand, I failed to get any good photos of our shopping and roasting experience because I was so distracted by all of the produce, Aiden’s questions and Drew’s curiosity.

Just these two made the camera roll (I should really start carrying the Canon with me):

Aiden was a little peeved that I told him we couldn’t buy these large pumpkins.  I captured his beautiful scowl at the camera as Drew was distracted Aiden’s pouty foot stomp.

Immediately followed by his boyish grinning eyes as he tried to hide his smile because he found a rock he wanted to keep.

So, we decided on a medium heat green chile, by the bushel (which is about 25lbs raw), to split between us.  At Palombo’s, you buy by the bushel and they roast for free.  Once roasted, one bag went home with Grandma Denise, and one bag came home with us.

I was beyond excited!  The smell in the car was so delicious, I started daydreaming about all the fun things I can do with the fresh roasted green chiles.  Little did I know this would turn into an all day event.

First, you have to let the hot chiles steam up in the bag they come home in ~ to further soften the skins for easy peeling.

Grab your food service gloves ~ (depending on the heat of the chiles) you really don’t want to accidentally stick a hot finger in your eye later.  The skins should easily peel off after 45 mins-1 hour of steaming.  Just grab the chile by the stem with one hand and rub the skins off with the other.

See the difference?

Once they’re all peeled, you can throw them in the freezer as-is, seeds, stems and all.

Or turn on some music, grab a cutting board, a sharp knife, a fresh pair of gloves and get to stemming, seeding and chopping these beauties.  …And let the Chile-a-thon begin!

I prefer to get the hard work done at the beginning so when I’m ready to throw these into a recipe, they’re ready to go.  Invest the time now to save time later.

I left the stems on about 2 dozen, but seeded them, for chile rellenos that I plan to make this weekend.  The rest, I cut the stems off and quickly pulled out a bulk of the seeds from the top (left the rest of the seeds), then chopped ’em for soups, stews, cornbread, etc down the road.  Freeze everything right away, then defrost when ready to use.

Of course, by this time of the night I was tired, my hand had gone numb from chopping and I had to have Joel help seal all the bags, flatten them out and throw them in the freezer.  It wasn’t until I was washing up and wiping down the counters that I realized I forgot to takes pics of the finished product.  And now they’re somewhere in the abyss of the large freezer in the garage and I’m too lazy to dig them up.  Wow, bad day for my camera memory…Sorry!

So, is it worth it?  Heck yes, y’all!  Think of all of the fun things you can addfresh roasted green chiles to!

• Green Chile Stew (obviously)
• Chile Rellenos, crunchy or soft
• Southwestern Chicken & Green Chile Stew
• Breakfast Casserole
• Cornbread or Corn Casserole
• Red Chili
• Hamburgers
• etc, etc, etc!

What’s your favorite green chile dish?  Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear how you use this super awesome-a-thon worthy veg.

Happy Green Chile Trails to you!  Now go get yourself a bushel, invite some family or friends over and host a green chile-a-thon of your own.  Let me know how it turns out.

Love ya!

~pw